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THE 

M A^ I 1ST E LAW, 

IN THE 

BALANCE. 



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THE 



MAINE LAW IN THE BALANCE 
1 



OR, 



AN INQUIRY 



INTO THE 



THEORY AND WORKING CAPACITIES 



OF THAT MEASURE. W 





BY 

A CITIZEN OF MAINE. 




FESTINA LENTE 

i 



THE TRADE AND OTHEB3 WILL BE SUPPLIED 

OH APPLICATION TO 

MERRILL AND WHITMAN, 

PORTLAND, ME. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 

EDWARD PAYSON, 

In the Clerk's OSce of the District Court of the District of Maine. 



Stereotyped by ^ 
EOBART & EOBBIN8, 

Jfew England Type and Stereotype Foundery, 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

If an intolerant spirit towards those who differ with us in senti- 
ment and in substantial is universally condemned, a similar spirit 
towards those who agree with us in these respects, and differ with 
us only as to outward form and mere instrumentalities, would seem 
to deserve a still deeper condemnation. And yet it is just here that 
the spirit is most rancorous. It is just here that it seems to take a 
pleasure in exhibiting itself as offensively as possible. The same 
man who boasts a toleration wide enough to embrace every diversity 
of creed and opinion, is ready to lead to the stake those who agree 
with him as to what ought to be done, but do not agree with him 
as to the manner of doing it ; and the surest way to affront him is 
not to oppose the system or measure which lies nearest his heart, 
but to advance it — in any other way than that which he approves. 
Opposition he does not object to, for it adds increased lustre to his 
triumph; cooperation, except in the manner he has himself pre- 
scribed, he detests, for it robs him of laurels he had intended should 
adorn his own brow only, and shows him that there is something of 
virtue, something of wisdom, something of knowledge, outside of that 
little cell at home where he would willingly have men suppose this 
wealth had all been concentred. Upon the same principle is it 
that dire alarm would seize him upon the slightest apprehension that 
the evil against which he is contending was about to disappear. 
Complete success to his enterprise is utter ruin to himself. Should, 
for instance, an instantaneous remedy be found for the evil of slavery, 
there are not a few whose craft would be injured much more than the 
slaveholder's ; and should intemperance cease from the earth, many 
would take precedence of the rumseller in the procession of mourners. 



These remarks are not introduced here without an object. The 
author wishes thus early, not merely for his own justification, but 
for a more comprehensive purpose, to protest against a logic more 
than ever fashionable in these days, which, to be sure, is not liable to 
the charge of confounding all distinctions, but which knows and 
makes one distinction only — do you pull by my rope, or another ; 
a logic which makes the advocate of colonization, rather than imme- 
diate emancipation, a pro-slavery man more hateful than the slave- 
holder himself; which sinks the advocate of temperance far below 
the " common seller," unless he happen to be of the " Maine Law' 7 
faction. Let it be once settled that this kind of logic is to prevail — 
that is one step towards despotism; not the despotism of an individ- 
ual,, but of a party, which is far worse ; and then let it be settled 
that this kind of logic is to be crammed down our throats by secret 
societies formed for the purpose — that is the other step. It only 
need be added, that those individuals who count all men " rummies " 
who are not in favor of the " Maine Law" had better look to it, 
lest, by the failure of the law, which desires to banish all other 
instrumentalities, thus leaving the cause of temperance without 
other support, they lay themselves open to the same charge, and 
much more justly. 

The law for the suppression of intemperance now known, the 
world over, as the " Maine Law," indicates confessedly one of the 
most important measures ever undertaken by a legislative body in 
this or any other State. The very magnitude of the evil whose cure 
it seeks to effect gives to it a consequence not easily over-estimated. 
Having had its origin in the State which has given to it its name, it 
has, with unimportant modifications, been extensively adopted by other 
State legislatures, awakening wherever it has gone a most lively 
interest, in many instances creating intense excitement, and encoun- 
tering everywhere a most determined opposition. But, notwithstand- 
ing the acknowledged importance of the act, and notwithstanding 
the wide contrariety of sentiment with which it has always been 
regarded, it3 discussion thus far has been confined almost entirely to 
the newspapers of the day; there having been no attempt, so far as 
the writer is informed, to bring it before the public tribunal in any 



more formal, continuous, and comprehensive manner — an omission 
which, in these days of book-making, would seem not a little surpris- 
ing, were we not in possession of facts which explain the anomaly. 
To supply fully this omission by a discussion of all the points 
involved in the question, would require a formidable volume, quite 
beyond the ambition, as it is also beyond the design, of the author of 
this tract. . The title-page indicates, to a considerable extent, what 
that design is. It is to inquire, as far as may be, into the law in 
question, — to pry more or less inquisitively into its earlier and 
later history, — to ascertain what it proposes to accomplish, what 
success has thus far attended it, and how far a similar, or greater, 
or less success, may be counted upon in future, — in a word, to test 
its claims, so far as our time, and space, and ability, will allow. 

That the question is in itself worthy of, and that an absolutely 
thorough investigation of it demands, these three conditions, in a 
much larger measure than he who now undertakes the task pos- 
sesses them, none know better than himself ; so that, did there seem 
to be a reasonable ground for hope that the work would ere long 
find some other exhibitor more bountifully gifted in these particu- 
lars, the author of the following pages would have willingly re- 
mained silent. There seems, however, to be very small ground for 
any such hope. So industriously has been circulated the idea that 
opposition to the Maine Law is opposition to temperance, — so deeply 
has the idea become rooted in the minds of a vast multitude, and so 
do many excellent men in the community, who at heart disapprove 
of, or at least distrust this law, reluctate to exhibit their doubts or 
their disapproval, lest, by a misconstruction very naturally fallen 
into, they should prove prejudicial to the cause of temperance, — 
and so do other kindred considerations operate as a sort of gag law 
upon this subject, that there seems but little likelihood that the 
omission above alluded to will be, for the present, at least, supplied. 
The motive for this shyness and timidity is doubtless a pure motive ; 
but whether any cause is more likely to triumph in the end by 
smothering, for the sake of apparent policy, the inmost convictions of 
the heart, we leave for those who adopt such a course themselves to 
determine. The originators and friends of the measure never tire 
1* 



6 

of reiterating the sentiment that opposition to the law is identi- 
cal with opposition to the cause of temperance at home, and is espe- 
cially unfavorable to its advancement in the other States. Here, 
we are told, the measure originated. Here it has been longest tried. 
Here it has been most deliberately and carefully considered, and 
here its capacity to do what it promises to do has been most severely 
tested. If we, who know it best, reject it, or exhibit even a luke- 
warmness in its support, the other States will take counsel of our 
apathy ; and if, on the other hand, we extol it as beyond all praise, 
and remain mum as to any weaknesses pertaining to it, there is the 
benefit of our example to be conferred upon our neighbors, who, it is 
contended, will be encouraged to take the law upon trust, seeing 
that it has wrought such wondrous results for humanity here at 
home. Now, all this, and much more we hear to the same purpose, 
is a plausible kind of reasoning, and most unobjectionable too, on the 
supposition that the law is what it is claimed to be by its friends. 
But that is the identical point in controversy. If the fact were 
first established that the law was certain to effect all the magnifi- 
cent results attributed to it, or even the half of them, the writer 
would unhesitatingly become a docile disciple in the mum school 
himself; and he might go so far as to acknowledge himself a convert 
to the doctrine, that a city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants 
might put up with an individual for mayor, even though for the 
specific duties of his office he should be to some extent incompetent, 
provided that, owing to certain of his antecedents, his election to the 
office would give to the cause of temperance that kind of aid above 
indicated. On the grounds of a comprehensive philanthropy, such a 
city might very properly sacrifice to some extent her individual 
interests, for the sake of the greater general good such a sacrifice 
might be the means of securing. 

But suppose the law, after all, prove a failure? Suppose 
those who by our example and our encouragement have been be- 
trayed into its adoption, find it, upon trial, only a broken reed, to 
pierce those who lean upon it? Where lies the responsibility? 
Clearly at our door ; so that the same reasoning which compels the 
friends of the measure thus to recommend it, on the other hand rests 



no less imperatively upon those who believe it will indeed prove a 
broken reed. The obligation resting upon us to warn others against 
leaning upon a staff whose rottenness we believe will be the means 
of plunging them into a ditch, is not less than that which makes it 
our duty to recommend a sound and reliable staff to those who stand 
in need of it. 

A few words as to the manner in which the argument will be 
conducted. The question it has to do with is not one of the past. 
It is not an effete, withered, thumbed and threadbare dogma of the 
schools, having an existence entirely above and dissociated from all 
that really concerns humanity. It is not a dead limb of a tree 
which is also dead. It is emphatically a living question. It is of 
this present generation, of this very day and hour, dwelling close 
at the side, nay, in the very heart, of every man. To always pre- 
serve to the argument of such a question a purely abstract form — 
to comply with the rigid, methodical requisitions of an arbitrary 
system of logic — would be as difficult, as it would be injurious to the 
argument itself, which, if it be not in part made up of, must at least 
borrow its illustrations from, facts and circumstances of recent 
occurrence, fresh in the minds of all. There will thus unavoidably 
occur what, without their being so intended, will have the appear- 
ance of unprovoked personalities, which can hardly fail to give 
more or less offence; and, to escape the necessity of constantly recur- 
ring disclaimers throughout the ensuing pages, the writer wishes to 
say, once for all, that all reference to individuals, directly or indi- 
rectly, will be studiously avoided, so far as is possible without inter- 
fering too greatly with a fair exposition of the question ; and still 
further to say, that general expressions will often occur, which are 
not intended to have a general application. That a majority, and a 
very large majority, of the advocates of the Maine Law, are actu- 
ated not only by innocent, but by highly honorable and praiseworthy 
motives, is not for a moment questioned; and the author desires thus 
early to rob of its power any and every sentence which may inad- 
vertently escape him, that may bear a different construction. He 
well foresees that, by any execution of the task he has undertaken, 
however strictly conformed to the rules of the severest etiquette, he 



8 

will incur from certain quarters not a little odium. Small heed 
will lie give to that ; but he would take great heed how he allows a 
mere difference of opinion to betray him into unjust aspersions or 
hurtful insinuations against others who do not agree with him. 
He claims a right to think for himself in this, as in all other mat- 
ters. He freely concedes the same right to othsrs. With a deep 
and unalterable conviction that the measure in question will prove 
in the main abortive, and that its evil consequences will not stop 
here, but will offer a serious obstacle in the way of the temperance 
reformation, he would be recreant to himself, if not false to others, 
should he longer hold his peace. 

NOT A " MAINE-LAW " MAN, NOR YET A "RUMMY." 



PART I. 



We live in an age of wonderful activity— of a certain description ; 
in an age of wonderful progress — in a certain direction. We are 
dazzled by brilliant discoveries in physical science— we are bewil- 
dered by their rapid succession. In this field civilization strides 
ever on in seven-leagued boots ; and, as it is man who conducts the 
glorious march, we are ready to bow down to man, to worship him 
as a God, and to ascribe to him powers which belong to God only. 
Long familiar with his illustrious achievements in the natural uni- 
verse, we thoughtlessly claim from him, and are disappointed if he do 
not perform, similar prodigies in the moral and spiritual world. We 
forget his sad bungling and his manifold blunders in the past ; and 
if we are reminded that only a few years have elapsed since Sir 
Matthew Hale burnt witches whom the multitude dragged in blind 
zeal before his tribunal, we excuse all that, under the belief that his 
descendants have grown wiser, and will be guilty of such absurdities 
no more. 

And is it indeed so I Is man in this nineteenth century a very 
different thing from man in the ninth or the seventeenth century? 



9 

Of machines without himself, he has invented and constructed an 
innumerable quantity, and they work his bidding well. But that 
inner mechanism of his own, which another, and not himself, con- 
structed — that handiwork of the Almighty — that exceeding curi- 
ous piece of workmanship, the human soul — does he understand 
that any better to-day than he did before printing was discovered ? 
Can he tell any better now than then what are its necessities ; and, 
having told, can he supply these necessities? Is he any better 
guarded against delusions, heresies, errors of all sorts? If so, 
whence come Mormonism, Millerism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, 
Socialism, Fourierism, Bloomerism, and other kindred fallacies? 
Is there a whit less material in the world for the designing dema- 
gogue, the pretentious quack, the upstart preacher of novelties, to 
work with and upon, now, than there was then ? Let either of these 
but cast his net, on either side of the ship, and verily he shall not 
be able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Eighteen hundred 
years ago, Pilate's question was, what is truth ; and, should he re- 
visit the earth to-day, he might with equal reason ask the same 
question again ; for, in the whole of this long period, scarce a single 
new ray of light has been secured to the world. 

If, then, the history of the past teaches anything, it teaches this : 
that widely different laws have been given to the two departments 
of physical and moral science — that the conditions of progress which 
belong to them respectively are totally unlike, and that any analogy 
sought to be established between them will lead to error and disap- 
pointed hopes. As a beautiful temple rises under the hand of the 
builder before our eyes, now a graceful pillar mounting upon its 
appointed pedestal, now the chiselled stone taking its allotted posi- 
tion in the growing wall, nothing wanting, nothing redundant, so, in 
this department of physical science, every newly-discovered fact, 
every lately-discovered analogy, as if under the potent spell of some 
weird magician, falls into its own appropriate spot, the beautiful 
structure growing ever, on, on, on, towards its harmonious comple- 
tion. But, turning our eyes in the other direction of moral science, 
what do we behold? No lately-arrived chiselled column, of fair 
proportions, bright, and fresh, and sparkling, from the living quarry ; 



10 

no square stone, swung aloft in air, waiting but a moment ere it 
descends to its appointed resting-place; but a heaped, confused 
assemblage of shapeless, formless, fire-riven, fire-blackened frag- 
ments, with the dust and grime and smoke of centuries upon them, 
each and all exhibiting many a ghastly wound from the rude ham- 
mers they have from time to time encountered; over and among 
which undistinguished, undestined fragments, with unsteady foot 
and uncertain gaze wander the bewildered operatives, without a 
leader, seeking vainly to extricate from the jumbled, oft-turned 
mass the stone which is next wanted. Who can wonder that, under 
such auspices, the foundation of the building is not yet laid ? 

Now, is there not reason to believe that it is in overlooking the 
distinction between these two departments, and in not sufficiently 
considering the widely-different laws which have been given to them, 
that many of the attempted reforms of the day have their origin ? 
By the extraordinary speed attained in the one, an impatience is 
begotten of that slow and toilsome progress which ever character- 
izes the other; and we look for extravagant results within man, 
commensurate with those which are constantly taking place without 
and around him. Restive under that mysterious, incomprehensible 
economy which permits the existence of great social and moral 
evils, stirred by an ever-active inward rebellion against what to 
mere human vision seems as unnecessary as it seems cruel, it is 
hardly cause of wonder that man should seek to find an escape from 
this restiveness, a cure for this rebellious spirit, by discovering and 
applying an infallible and instantaneous antidote for that condition' 
of things in which these feelings, so fatal to his peace, have their 
origin. 

But, whether or not the explanation thus hinted be in part the true 
one, the fact itself does not admit of denial, that in these days great 
and sudden social, moral, and political reformations are demanded, 
and extensive improvements looked for, on a liberal scale, quite 
beyond anything which a just appreciation of these subjects at all 
warrants us in expecting. And the bearing these remarks are in- 
tended to have upon the subject-matter of discussion can hardly 
fail to be at once perceived by every one. Holding a most con- 



11 

spicuous place among the evils which afflict, and which have long 
afflicted society, stands intemperance, — distinguished, too, not more 
by its enormity, than by the immense amount of effort which has been 
expended for its cure. So beyond computation destructive and ruin- 
ous are its consequences, and so have the various expedients from 
time to time resorted to against it proved either entire or partial 
failures, that we need not be surprised if, under the pressure above 
alluded to, without any less justifiable motive, impracticable and 
inadequate schemes be devised for its overthrow ; nor need we any 
more be surprised if men clutch eagerly at the proffered specific, 
even though its introduction lack that famous flourish of trumpets, 
and those loud-sounding, extravagant boastings, with which these 
somewhat over-confident doctors too often herald forth their precious 
secret. That an immense majority of those who have given their 
adherence to the Maine Law have done so to a very considerable 
extent under influences thus explained, cannot be doubted. And 
that the originators of the measure, with whom lies the chief re- 
sponsibility, were more or less under the same influences in the 
conception and early development of the scheme, seems equally prob- 
able ; and if, as the stream has flowed onward away from the foun- 
tain-head, it has become polluted by the intermingling of impurer 
waters, it becomes us rather to deplore a weakness incident to 
humanity, rather than to hasten, possibly upon inconclusive evi- 
dence, to condemn another for delinquencies and positive wrong- 
doing, from which it is hardly possible that our own skirts have 
always been free. 

But, passing from individuals, who have but a secondary con- 
nection with this question, I shall now proceed to the examination 
already proposed. And, to do this intelligently, it seems necessary 
first to inquire what this measure, denominated the " Maine Law," 
promises to do ; for unless this be ascertained, we might be led out 
of our way in order to attack it for not doing something it never 
agreed to do. TVe wish, then, to learn, as accurately as may be, the 
identical thing it proposes to effect, and the extent to which it pro- 
poses to effect it. And inasmuch as a knowledge of its history, and 
its operations in. the past, will throw very considerable light on 



12 

that point, and will be found, indeed, quite useful along the entire 
road we design to travel, I shall tarry here a moment to take this 
historical survey, before proceeding further. 

Four years ago, the Legislature of the State of Maine enacted a 
new law for the suppression of intemperance, so greatly exceeding 
in the severity of its penalties, and in its stringent provisions gen- 
erally, any law for a similar purpose that had preceded it, that it at 
once attracted universal attention at home and abroad, and very 
soon came to be known everywhere as "The Maine Law." For 
convenience' sake, the same appellation has continued to be bestowed 
upon it through all the changes which have successively happened to 
it ; though it would seem somewhat at the expense of truth, since, 
strictly interpreted, it conveys the idea that the single statute first 
enacted has remained intact until the present time; whereas that 
statute soon gave place to a second, which in its turn yielded to a 
third — the now existing law on the subject. Its passage was in 
itself the occasion of very considerable excitement, — soon, however, 
greatly increased by the various unusual, and, as was thought by a 
large portion of the community, unjustifiable expedients made use of 
to give to the law an authority, which, left to stand upon its own 
bottom, it seemed little likely to secure. Secret societies, or clubs, 
were at once organized for its support, whose active and zealous 
efforts in its behalf — neither required at their hands nor excused by 
any official responsibility resting upon them, but rendered volun- 
tarily — were peculiarly offensive to all outsiders, who were not 
partakers with them in these proceedings. Other machinery, too, 
totally unrecognized by any State authority, was soon put in motion. 
In some instances men were hired to act the part of spies and 
informers; and in others drinking shops were visited, and an infrac- 
tion of the law procured, for the specific purpose of making a cul- 
prit, and procuring testimony against the individual thus ensnared 
and betrayed. In short — for I wish to condense rather than am- 
plify — the measures that were contrived, and the principles that 
were avowed, were just such as a blind fanaticism, goaded on by and 
made the tool of private interests and personal ambition, always 
begets ; and while there was much in the law itself to render it dis- 



13 

tasteful to the community, it was rapidly rendered still more so by 
the kind of aid which was invoked to uphold it. 

The discussion, too, of the question, as conducted by the friends of 
the measure, assumed a most offensive tone. Despotic as seemed the 
law, the character and style of the reasoning by which it was 
attempted to be supported was still more so. So clamorously and 
persistently was the doctrine preached that opposition to the law 
was opposition to temperance, and so difficult did it very soon 
become to dissent from those who had thus monopolized into their 
hands the entire defence of the cause, without giving color to this 
doctrine, that very many, rather than have the appearance even of 
countenancing the rumseller, kept back their real sentiments. Thus 
not a few were either dragooned into the service outright, or were 
made passively to submit to what they at heart disapproved, but did 
not feel themselves at liberty to openly oppose. Others, who occu- 
pied a half-way position, — who looked first at the evil to be cured, 
and then at the doubtful remedy, and hesitated how to choose between 
them, — were at length prevailed upon to yield their assent when the 
question was presented in a milder form ; and they were pressed to 
try at least the experiment, forgetting, perhaps, that those who com- 
mence by this half-way compliance, from pride of opinion and a 
regard for what they term consistency, generally end by giving a full 
and unconditional support. In this instance the trying of one 
experiment led to a second, and that to a third; and, when the list 
is exhausted, there will probably be few of the experimenters who 
have not become converts in full communion. 

But while the measure was thus tolerated by some, and received 
the hesitating support of others, there was to be found a third class, 
far outnumbering both of these, who, from the first, gave to it a 
hearty approval. In the extent of the evil against which it was 
directed these individuals found not the measure only, but the proof 
of its value. Was intemperance a great curse ? The Maine Law 
was a great blessing. Venture to hint a doubt as to its efficacy, and 
these illustrious logicians entertain you with a glowing account of 
rum's doings since the days of Noah. Suggest that it is in advance 
of public sentiment, and can have at best but a temporary existence ; 
2 



14 

they break forth into an eloquent and pathetic harangue about beg- 
gared children, weeping widows, and desolate firesides. Attempt to 
demonstrate that the whole scheme rests upon mistaken views and 
unsound principles, and they let loose upon you a flood of statistics, 
with a complacency truly refreshing to contemplate. Assert in direct 
terms that for any reason the law must prove a failure, — go a step 
further, and avow your opposition to it, — hands are raised in holy 
horror at your atrocious inhumanity, and you are set down incon- 
tinently as " one of the wicked; " — a kind of reasoning, which, if 
it be deficient in some points, certainly possesses two advantages in an 
eminent degree: it is unanswerable, and withal very convenient; 
and he who is expert in this style of argument may dispense with 
every other, for by it he can prove anything. 

Meanwhile, the authors and special guardians of the law made all 
haste to set forth its beneficent influence and admirable working, and 
well improved the time in extolling its manifold virtues. Neighbor- 
ing States, who had been diddled by these extravagant assertions, and 
had been induced, by efforts directed to that end, to enact similar 
laws, were now made use of to commend to our increased favor the 
identical law they only yesterday borrowed from us ; thus having 
hardly received the benefit of our example, when they were called 
upon to pay for it in the same coin. Having had an axe furnished 
to them gratis, it is only a fit return that they should lend their aid 
to grind ours to a finer edge. 

By the aid, then, of these various props and appliances above 
described, and many others of a similar kind ; by a sanguine hopeful- 
ness on the part of a very numerous class, which furnished arguments 
for the law where there were none before ; and last, though by no 
means least, by the indefatigable zeal of its prime movers and special 
patrons, it succeeded at last in getting a foothold. 

And now another eye is fixed upon it, surveying it as yet, how- 
ever, only from a distance. Indeed, it had hardly raised its head 
above the water, when this eye began to look curiously and medita- 
tively towards it. But your politician is a wary animal, as well as 
a watchful. He likes to know, as nearly as possible, what this new 
thing, or, for that matter, any new thing, is, before he puts his foot 



15 

in it. He remembers to have read, even when a boy, of a venture- 
some mariner who mistook a floating sea-monster for something more 
substantial and more permanent, and who, having discovered his mis- 
take by kindling a fire on the monster's back, was compelled to make 
a precipitate retreat ; and he remembers, too, how often his political 
contemporaries, if not himself as well, have been betrayed into similar, 
but less fabulous blunders. He will, therefore, wait a little, to be 
assured whether this be a veritable island, thrown up in those turbid 
waters he loves so well to navigate, by some volcanic or other subter- 
ranean fires, or whether it be only a slippery-backed whale, which, 
instead of affording him a safe footing, will be very likely to tip him 
and his crew overboard. He, therefore, leaves the distant stand- 
point from which he first surveyed the thing, with a slow and com- 
mendable caution, armed with discretion, and revolving in his mind 
those prudential maxims of which he has vast store in possession. 
He gathers courage, however, as he proceeds, and he at last gets near 
enough to the thing to poke it with a stick. For a moment he is 
ready to imagine that it settles a trifle, or manifests an inclination to 
slide away a little. But, presently, emboldened as the experiment 
advances, he gives it another and a harder thrust, and he finds that 
his first fears were altogether unnecessary ; for, instead of resenting 
these proceedings, or exhibiting anything like animosity, as he had 
conjectured it might possibly do, it rather invites and encourages his 
approach, until, the nether extremity of the long pole he holds in his 
hand being held fast in friendly grasp by the mud, of which the outer 
edge, at least, of the island is composed, he draws himself safely to 
the shore, and takes possession. He, by this time, knows it to be a 
veritable island, — a true terra jirma, which will remain above water 
long enough, at all events, to allow a profitable speculation to be made 
out of it. He now straightway puts it down upon his chart, that he 
may always be assured of its bearings ; for, though he well perceives 
it has none of that kind of life in it which will cause it to wince or 
flounce about to the jeopardy of its newly-arrived occupant, on 
account of any fires he may kindle upon its back, or other liberties 
he may see fit to take, he still understands that it requires to be 
managed gently, and with that prudence which is so characteristic of 



16 

not himself merely, but of political adventurers generally. Having 
thus got it down upon his chart, having ascertained its latitude and 
longitude, and examined the soundings in its neighborhood, he is for 
the time satisfied. He thinks it not expedient, just at present, to 
erect a flag upon it, or take other steps in token of his discovery and 
possession ; and his title to occupancy he will not openly assert just 
yet. It occurs to him that there may be a prior claim, and he thinks 
it better to secure a half-interest by " arrangements," rather than 
lose the whole by an indiscreet haste and an inordinate greed. And 
the sequel shows that he has not taken lessons in the school of pru- 
dence for nothing. The prior claim turns up, just as he expected ; 
and, just as he expected, the " arrangements " are effected without 
difficulty, and quite to his liking ; for the prospect is that, whatever 
the island may.be worth, or whatever fruits it may yield, by far the 
greater portion will fall to his share. 

But, not to pursue the figure further, the fact it exhibits is noto- 
rious to everybody. Conscious of its own infirmities, — made sensible 
that the public mind, facile as it is, and accommodating as it was 
evidently disposed to be, would not always tolerate those outside 
helps, above described, upon which it had hitherto mainly depended, — 
the law, VuStead of repelling the political advances just indicated, 
opened its arms wide to receive them, regarding them as a most 
timely godsend to keep it for a while out of the grave, towards whose 
crumbling edge it felt itself to be fast tending. 

Now, that this whole exhibition of the question will be sturdily 
denied by those whose bantling the law is, and who have ever held the 
office of self-appointed godfather towards it, is only matter of course; 
but, unfortunately for them, the denial will avail them little. That 
the connection above alluded to has itself been formed, is matter of 
history ; and, if the measure, by reason of its intrinsic weakness, did 
not stand in need of this support, its managers have made themselves 
parties to a venal and disreputable transaction, without even the pal- 
liating circumstance that a stern necessity drove them into it. It is, 
at best, a question between gratuitous, voluntary turpitude, and a 
turpitude which might be charged to a severe temptation. But we 
cannot, consistently with truth, allow these managers of the measure 



■) 



17 

thus to deprive themselves of this extenuating circumstance. The 
■weakness we have charged upon it did exist, and none are more 
thoroughly convinced of the fact than the individuals who availed 
themselves of this fortuitous aid. And that this is so will be to some 
extent made manifest by pursuing the present historical inquiry a step 
or two further. Notwithstanding the boastful claims so constantly 
and vehemently reiterated as to the satisfactory working of the law, 
it soon became evident, to all who troubled themselves to look into the 
matter, that in its original form it would not answer. Accordingly, 
to get something that would answer, a substitute was formed, which, 
after two years' trial of the first law, became the second enactment on 
the subject; and, not to weary the reader with multitudinous 
details, this, also, in its turn, proved inadequate, when the third and 
present existing statute was passed — this wonderful measure having 
thus changed its substance, not once in seven years, as we are told is 
true of the human body, but three times in four years : and yet. 
through the whole, continuing to be designated as, and claiming to 
be, " the Maine law " ! Now, if this changeful and frequent legisla- 
tion, this botching and tinkering, this endless stopping of leaks, this 
constant hauling up for repairs and alterations, does not indicate 
imperfection and inadequacy in the model itself, and a want of confi- 
dence in those who contrived it, we know not what may fairly be 
considered such an indication ; and if an alliance with political 
trucksters, and venal, ambitious demagogues, which, if we admit it 
was not courted, was at least suffered, does not point the same way, 
then we have read the finger-board upside down. Perhaps, however,, 
it ought not to create surprise that those who first staked so muchi 
upon a statute of mere human enactment, and who counted upon 
such huge results from an ordinance emanating from fallible men, 
should afterwards be found seeking aid from the same men, in another 
capacity than that of legislators, to bolster up an act, to the perfect- 
ing of which, while acting in the capacity of legislators, they had 
proved so utterly unequal. 

And here we conclude the historical survey of this question, which 
a few pages back we proposed to take. That it might easily have 
been swelled far beyond the narrow limits within which we- have con- 
2* 



18 

fined it, and that, in strict compliance with truth, it might have been 
made to assume a far more offensive shape, few, who are at all con- 
versant with the facts in the case, will for a moment deny. But to 
unnecessarily wound the feelings of any one, or to add fuel to those 
fires of discord of which this measure has already been the occasion, 
has been no part of my object. Nor do I any more lay particular 
stress upon this exhibition I have attempted for any supposed argu- 
ment it affords prejudicial to the act itself. I am perfectly willing 
to ignore everything in its past development that reflects', or seems to 
reflect, discredit upon it, or that tends to impair its authority. I 
think there are more legitimate and satisfactory grounds, upon which 
to test this whole matter, than anything which the experience we have 
had of it has been able to furnish ; and I have given the above out- 
line, not for anything it contains in itself, but for the light which it 
seems calculated to incidentally shed upon that exhibition of the 
question I now propose to attempt. Had the measure been crowned 
with a success up to the present period far beyond what its most 
sanguine supporters ever imagined, my objections to it would not be 
essentially lessened. Had its failure been more complete than it has 
been, my objections to it would not be materially strengthened. 

And we are now prepared to inquire, as was proposed, What is the 
exact thing this law promises to do ? To accomplish what, and how 
much, does it stand pledged? Is it a something auxiliary to some- 
thing else, — a something which allows something else to be auxiliary 
to it, — or is it, taking its own account of itself, a something -which 
renders all other somethings a mere worthless overplus, a mere 
superfluous nothing ? Considered in the bearing it has upon the dis- 
cussion in hand, this is a very important point, which cannot be too 
clearly settled in the outset. An instrumentality which claims only 
to be subsidiary to another instrumentality may evidently be toler- 
ated, nay, more, encouraged, even if it be confessedly imperfect, 
since what it fails to accomplish is only a negative offence, in the 
character of a mere omission, and nothing more, and is not a ground 
for any positive charge against it ; and the same is true, though to a 
less extent, of an instrumentality, which, claiming to be the chief 
agent, still allows itself to receive aid from others ; whereas, an 



19 

instrumentality which claims to do all that in the nature of the 
case can be done, is chargeable with all that remains undone, so far 
as its own exclusive spirit and practice have contributed towards such 
an omission. And still further, if in any given case the measure to 
be discussed claims, I will not say to be perfect, but to possess the 
capacity to do all that in the nature of the case can be done, and 
rejects accordingly all other aid as mere surplusage, then the re- 
quirements of a successful argument against it are fully met, if I 
show that it is not thus capable, even if I fail to do more, and show 
that the measure is liable to those deeper objections which go to 
prove its absolute worthlessness, and its inutility altogether. I shall 
attempt, however, to make the reader agree with me in the belief 
that the greater of the above propositions is true, as well as the 
less. 

A single word or two as to the degree of success that has already 
attended this measure, and I proceed to my main design. 

And why, it may be asked, only a single word or two on this 
point ? 

The question is a fair one, and I reply : first, because whatever 
might be said would evidently amount to little more than the mere 
testimony of a single individual on a subject about which no two per- 
sons do or can fully agree ; and secondly, because the argument 
presented in the following pages, unless it be altogether an unsound 
one, renders any very minute inquiry on this point unnecessary. 
Whether the results accomplished thus far by this "Maine Law" 
are to be measured by the estimate formed of them by its friends, or 
its enemies, or whether, as is most likely, the truth is to be found 
somewhere between the two, is of small consequence. That less 
liquor is sold publicly than was formerly the case, is doubtless true. 
That more is sold privately, is equally true; and that much is drank 
privately we are compelled to believe, when we are told that even a 
" Maine Law" temperance lecturer has not scorned to arm himself 
with a brandy-flask, from which to imbibe a glowing eloquence in 
behalf of his favorite measure. 

Perhaps, under the circumstances, there is no more reliable and 
satisfactory evidence to be had upon this point, than that furnished 



20 

to our hands by the friends of the "Law" themselves. Their 
admission of its inefficiency in the past we have in a two-fold shape : 
first, in their bolstering up the law by all manner of extra-judicial 
aids and appliances ; and then, in their seeking a more carefully- 
prepared enactment, protected by more stringent provisions. To 
draw any inference from its working in favor of a law which changes 
itself every successive year, would be quite inadmissible ; while any 
argument to be found against it, in its defective operation, need 
scarcely be pressed, so long as there exist other and more substan- 
tial grounds of objection. Even were the difficulty of proof, as to 
its success thus far, removed, and were there no discrepancy of testi- 
mony on the subject, the past would furnish neither any guarantee 
for the future, nor any data upon which to found an opinion of its 
permanent value. The propriety of these remarks will, however, be 
more fully developed in the subsequent examination, to which I now 
invite the reader's attention. 

Having thus disposed of these preliminary points, I come now to 
consider the main question. This will properly be discussed under 
two divisions : one having to do with general, abstract principles, 
friendly or unfriendly to the measure, as the case may be; the 
other confining itself to a more practical view, and attempting to 
analyze and determine, with accuracy, the working capacities of the 
law under consideration. And inasmuch as an appeal founded upon 
any weaknesses which may be disclosed as belonging to the law, in this 
latter particular, will be more effective with the great majority, if 
not, indeed, with all, than anything we can hope to glean from that 
other field, where, from the very nature of the materials to be dealt 
with, demonstrative certainty is not to be anticipated, and where, from 
the greater latitude of inquiry, a greater diversity of opinion may 
fairly be expected, for this reason I shall leave this last-named portion 
of the argument to be last considered, and shall first ask the reader's 
attention to some remarks concerning the practical operation of the 
law in question. I doubt not it is precisely here that the battle is 
to be fought — that precisely here imperfections will be found 
belonging to the measure, which will be decisive of its ultimate fate. 
These lie to a considerable extent upon the surface. They have at 



21 

one time or another been the subject of discussion ; and, if I should 
now appear to some to labor this point unnecessarily, I beg leave to 
remind such that an incredulity capable of resisting a proposition so 
apparently self-evident is to be met and overcome only by the most 
persevering effort, and oft-repeated blows. If there be eyes to which 
the natural light that surrounds this subject has failed to reveal it 
clearly, we are only warned how great must be any artificial light 
that can hope to supply the deficiency. 

Will, then, the law work? Will it go on to discharge those 
duties and offices that are claimed for it ? Is it equal to this task ? 
"Will it work always, and under all circumstances ? A very large 
majority of the community would rejoice with exceeding joy to have 
intemperance suppressed. Will this law suppress it ? If not, why 
not ? These are evidently the main points in the question ; and if we 
can once settle them to our satisfaction, any difference of opinion 
likely to arise from a more abstract view of the matter will be easily 
disposed of. 

And as this is a penal statute, the first inquiry that arises is this : 
Upon what do the working capacities of penal statutes depend 
generally, or in other cases ? What is it that makes them fruit- 
bearing, and not barren ? 

To this general inquiry, I make this general reply. Under a 
government purely despotic, mere force will do this. In the absence 
of that, and under a government like our own, a suflicient prepon- 
derance of public sentiment in favor of the law will do the same ; 
and where this last does not exist in a sufficient degree, an extraor- 
dinary personal and individual energy, or some other similar outside 
instrumentality, may for a time supply the deficiency. With that one 
of these things first named we have no concern in this discussion, 
but are left to rely upon one or both of the two last. To stop to 
offer any proof that there is nothing beyond this from which a penal 
statute derives any authority, would be waste of time and labor. A 
law, as such, evidently is endowed with no magic power to prevent 
the doing, or to cause the doing, of anything. 

I have been careful to say a sufficient preponderance of public 
sentiment, because this is found to be necessary in very different 



22 

degrees, in different cases, and under different circumstances. If one 
half of the community are agreed as to the desirableness of a 
measure, about which the other half are only indifferent, so that there 
is no opposition to be overborne, a unanimity thus only negatively 
imperfect may suffice to accomplish the desired end. So, too, a 
bare majority may prove equal to the introducing, and afterwards 
sustaining, of a measure which rests upon palpable, undeniable 
principles of justice and sound reason, and which have been long 
established and universally received, even against a large minority. 
But just so far as the principles upon which the measure rests are 
still in dispute and unsettled, just so far as they partake of an 
uncertainty which renders them incapable of demonstrative proof, and 
just so far as they are repulsive and obnoxious to a portion of the 
community, just so far does it become necessary that the unanimity 
in favor of the measure should be increased, in order to calculate 
upon a permanent and final success ; so that we may conceive of a 
case where these three attendants are found in so great a degree, 
that a very small minority may interpose a decisive obstacle in the 
way of the final triumph of the measure in hand. In other words, 
the preponderance of public sentiment already insisted upon, in 
order to be successful, must evidently be more or less decided, both 
numerically and as to its inner force and vitality, according as it has 
to do with principles less or more settled already — less or more 
capable of being definitely settled, and more or less obnoxious to the 
opposition. 

What, then, is a difficulty, or, to speak more correctly, what is the 
grand and decisive difficulty, in the way of the practical working of 
this law ? 

First requesting the reader to bear in mind the remarks just 
offered, and also the historical survey already taken, I reply, it is a 
difficulty now in the very course of finding a practical illustration, 
and is precisely this : To insure success to the measure, it requires 
far more stringent provisions in the legislative act upon which it 
rests than the public mind is at all prepared for, or will steadily 
enforce; and, as a consequence of this want of preparedness, it 
requires in lieu thereof an ever-active instrumentality extraneous to 



23 

anything in the act itself, and supplemental to any authority resid- 
ing in the State, in order that it be enforced; which instrumentality it 
can in nowise be assured of always receiving. 

Let us first consider the first clause in this proposition. Before 
we are prepared to determine whether it be true, we must come to 
some understanding as to the degree of stringency that is necessary 
to enforce the measure. For this purpose the estimate furnished to 
our hands by the originators and special patrons of the law will 
amply suffice ; and we have only to refer to the Appendix, where is 
to be found a copy of the law, to get this estimate. And, not to in- 
terrupt the continuity of the argument, by tracing, step by step, the 
several advances that from time to time have already been found nec- 
essary beyond the penalties awarded to the offence by the first enact- 
ment on the subject, it is sufficient to remark, that under the present 
and third law imprisonment is awarded to its first infraction ; while, 
for still further security, other new braces and girders have been in- 
troduced into the building, which had no place in the original model, 
it being meanwhile by no means concealed, that, failing these, penal- 
ties of still greater severity, and braces of still greater strength, will 
be hereafter devised. 

Now, it is important to observe that all this is in perfect consist- 
ency with the doctrine upon which this measure rests ; so that, had 
we not yet reached this present grade of punishment, and had we not 
been informed that severer penalties were contemplated, we might still 
have foreseen that this would be the result ; for it is only the necessary 
and inevitable consequence of the reasonings by which this " Maine 
Law " is supported. The doctrine taught, and the doctrine upon 
which this measure rests, and upon which it must rest, is just this : 
that the making, selling or transporting, from one place to another, 
of spirituous liquors, are crimes, just as murder and theft, or other 
similar felonies, are crimes ; and that they should be considered as 
penal offences, just as murder and theft are penal offences, and should 
be dealt with accordingly. 

Let us, then, examine this doctrine, and the consequences attempted 
to be drawn from it. And, for argument's sake, let us admit, for a 
moment, that all this is true — that they are such crimes. The 



24 

question still remains — and, so far as concerns the point we are now 
considering, namely, the preparedness of the public mind, it is the 
all-important question — Do men so regard them ? Have they been 
in the habit of so regarding them ? Is there any known process so 
rapid in its working, that what was only yesterday regarded as highly 
objectionable, and day before yesterday was not open even to that 
censure, shall to-day be looked upon as a crime in the sense above 
mentioned ? How recently was it, pray, that lecturers went about 
the country persuading men not to commit murders ? Within how 
short a time was it that men pledged themselves not to steal, or be 
guilty of any other felony ? Where are the reformed murderers and 
the repentant thieves, whose aid is invoked to assist in the suppression 
of these evil deeds ? On what page of the Bible is it — for, although 
our adversaries will not allow us to refer to that book to find out what 
constitutes a crime, we may at least refer to it as the source from 
which men have been in the habit of looking heretofore for that pur- 
pose — on what page of the Bible is it that these things, claimed by 
this law to be classified with crimes, are so spoken of? Where, until 
now, since the world began, is to be found a code of morals which 
teaches that things evil in themselves, and always evil, should be put 
down in the same category with things that maybe innocent, and become 
not so only when abused ? Do — can simple words, merely by being 
placed in a certain sequence by a legislative enactment, become 
clothed with a magic virtue, capable of effacing distinctions, which, 
if they really do not rest, men at least have always believed to 
rest, upon foundations deep and enduring and immovable as the 
everlasting hills ? 

This whole thing lies in a nut-shell. Human legislation cannot 
bring men to the point of regarding that as a crime in the sense I 
am now using the term — and I use it in the sense the framers of 
this law use it, and, be it remembered, in the sense in which they 
must use it — - which all and every the antecedents belonging to it de- 
clare not to be a crime ; and until they are brought to this point, they 
will not, if left to themselves, inflict penalties as for a crime. To guil- 
lotine a man to-day for doing what only yesterday we were coaxing 



25 

him not to do, is a rapidity of progress which will scarcely be toler- 
ated, even in these days of extravagant demands. 

Let us look at it a moment longer. Twenty-five, perhaps I should 
say thirty years ago — and twice or four times this period is a mere 
pin-point when we are considering great moral changes — neither the 
making, selling, or drinking of spirituous liquors, was held to be even 
disreputable. The man who kept an array of decanters ancl wine- 
glasses upon his sideboard, and offered their contents to his friends, 
was as respectable a man in the community as his neighbor, who 
neither drank himself, nor offered the glass to others ; and the cen- 
tury in which we live must have very considerably advanced into its 
first quarter, before even those who ministered in holy things were a 
whit better than their parishioners in this respect. 

But to do away so nearly instantaneously with all men's previous 
habits of thinking, even upon trifling and unimportant matters, where 
the change is productive of no serious consequences, is not an easy 
matter ; and to attempt the same thing where the change shall be the 
means of subjecting themselves to severe penalties and deep dis- 
grace, or of compelling them to inflict the same upon others, is a 
task to which even Omnipotence itself is not equal, unless man's 
nature be first itself changed. A measure whose success should 
depend upon making men believe that color white which they have 
always supposed was black, or that red which they have always sup- 
posed was green, would stand upon all fours with the present, as to its 
chances of ultimate success. We do no greater violence to their 
nature, in demanding this change of a long-established opinion, than 
we do in demanding the other. 

And, to pursue this point a little further, let us select, for our 
examination, the seventh section of the present existing law, which 
forbids the transportation of spirituous liquors. This is a pure 
addition to the former law, which contained no provision on the sub- 
ject, and is doubtless regarded by the contrivers of it as indispens- 
able to the law's efficiency ; for upon no other grounds can it receive 
even an apparent justification. By turning to the Appendix, the 
reader may find this section in full ; and he will perceive that not 
only is the carrying of spirituous liquors there made a crime punish- 
8 



26 

able with imprisonment, but the evil intent is presumed against the 
accused, and, unless he prove the contrary, he is convicted. "Now, 
it is true that, upon a charge of murder, the old and technical rule 
of law is, that the malice aforethought which is necessary to consti- 
tute that crime shall be presumed, and the burden of proving the 
contrary is thrown upon the prisoner; a rule however, which, in 
this highest of all offences, — until this offence of selling liquors made 
its appearance, — has been greatly relaxed in modern times; while in 
most, if not all other cases, the felonious intent which constitutes 
the gist of the offence is to be proved by the State. If a man be 
charged with passing counterfeit money, he is not compelled to show 
that he did it innocently, but the State must be prepared to 
prove that he did it knowingly, with intent to defraud, or the prose- 
cution must fail. And it may be remarked, in passing, how the view 
I have offered as to the doctrine upon which this measure rests — the 
doctrine, namely, that the selling of liquors is a crime not distin- 
guishable from other enormous felonies — is further confirmed by 
this stringent provision I have just alluded to ; Tor, as in the case of 
homicide the malicious intent is presumed against the prisoner, so in 
this case the mere carrying of spirituous liquors is made to be con- 
structive evidence of the evil intent, which the accused must rebut, 
or otherwise be convicted. 

Now, that there may temporarily, and by force of accidents, exist 
such an anomalous state of things in a given community that a sin- 
gle conviction or two may be had, even under this most monstrous 
section, is perhaps not absolutely impossible ; but that any commu- 
nity more than a single remove above savageism, which retains in its 
own hands the right of making its own laws, will ever be brought to 
adopt such a policy, and of its own accord, free from any external 
pressure, to permanently abide by and execute it, I think is impos- 
sible. 

But my object in alluding here to this section has been, that I 
may repeat the question concerning it, which was before asked in 
relation to the selling of spirituous liquors. If, as I endeavored to 
show, men cannot be brought to the point of regarding that as a fel- 
ony, can they any more be made to regard the transportation as 



27 

such ? How, or when, has the way been prepared for the introduc- 
tion of this unfamiliar doctrine ? By what rapid steps, what gigan- 
tic strides, has it been approached ? Most unfortunately for the 
whole law, and in a peculiar sense for this seventh section, men 
have hitherto labored under the strange delusion that the motive has 
something to do in determining the character of any given act ; and, 
until this delusion be dissipated, it will cause them to discriminate, 
even if the law does not, between those actions which deserve to be 
ranked with felonies, and punished accordingly, and those which do 
not so deserve. An angel, for aught I know to the contrary, may 
pass from one point to another, without going through the intermedi- 
ate space ; but to require men, who in several respects differ from 
angels, to pass instanter from their former point of belief and opinion, 
to this which is so remote from it, is requiring a trifle more than will 
very soon be granted. 

And, to dwell a moment longer upon this precious section, — for I 
confess I embrace it with a very tender love, — to give one parting 
glance at this most magnanimous section, which, in the very act of 
turning its back upon us, and making its graceful exit, by its con- 
cluding clause allows a man to prove himself innocent, notwithstand- 
ing the prima facie evidence of his guilt, — I submit it to every 
candid and rational mind whether it does not, in itself, reveal a pov- 
erty on the very borders of starvation, a nakedness, with scarce a 
fluttering rag to its back, belonging to this whole measure ? When 
a law, to keep itself alive, proposes to send a man to jail for six 
months, because, forsooth, he carried a jug or a barrel of whiskey 
from one part of this good State of Maine, and deposited said jug or 
barrel in another part of said State, does it not exhibit that law re- 
duced to a pitiable plight, which needs only to be well understood, 
when there shall be found " none so poor as to do it reverence " ? 
The argument ab absurdum may serve to place this particular 
point in a stronger light ; and I remark that the identical reasoning 
that justifies the above section would equally justify a law which 
should make it a felonious offence, punishable with imprisonment, to 
erect a building for the sale of spirituous liquors ; to furnish a nail 
or a plank to be used in the construction of the same ; to make or 



28 

transport said nail or plank for that purpose ; to sell a horse or 
wagon to be used for transporting said liquors ; to charter a vessel, 
without first stipulating that no liquors should make a part of the 
freight ; to make or sell jugs, demijohns, pipes, barrels, hogsheads. 
or other vessels to contain liquors ; in a word, to do anything, no 
matter how remote it may be from the prime act of selling, which 
may contribute towards that offence. I defy anybody, who accepts 
the reasoning upon which this section now being considered is at- 
tempted to be justified, to stop a hair's breadth short of the intensely 
absurd lengths I have just indicated ; and, if the radical unsoundness 
of the whole principle upon which this entire law rests is not thus 
fully illustrated, then I freely admit my incapacity to illustrate it. 
The very introduction of this section is a surrender of the whole 
matter in controversy. It is a confession of judgment in open court ; 
and, although, by various expedients, the pronouncing of the sentence 
may be deferred a while longer, that is sure to come in the end — a 
sentence from which the culprit will scarcely shield himself, by 
pleading either his good intentions or his meritorious deeds ; unless 
he can point to something more than that inimitable graciousness 
already remarked upon, in allowing a man whom he has first made a 
criminal, but who in reality is not so, to produce testimony in sup- 
port of the latter fact. That such a distinguished clemency should 
be found dwelling right under the nose of an unmitigated austerity, 
makes one ready to suspect that there was some slip of the pen, 
whose intention was to exclude the rebutting testimony, but by an over- 
sight allowed it to be offered. If it was indeed an oversight, it is 
unfortunate for the doctors who concocted this law that they did not 
commit others of a similar sort ; for their blunders would have proved 
more serviceable to them than their best-considered, longest- weigh eel 
counsels. 

I apprehend that by this time it is sufficiently clear what the doc- 
trine of the law is, and what the nature and extent of the penalties 
it proposes. And, in view of the considerations thus far presented, I 
ask, is not that part of my proposition established which denies that 
the public mind is prepared for these stringent provisions ? Is it 
prepared to discard all its former habits of thought — to throw over- 



29 

board those deeply-seated, long-cherished standards, by which it has 
always, until now, formed its estimate of the character of a given 
act, — in a word, to declare that to be a crime to-day, punishable 
with imprisonment, which yesterday was held to be, even if not 
properly so held, only a matter for entreaty and remonstrance ? 

A word or two more on this point, which I believe to be of great 
importance, and I leave it. The reason I have thus far given why 
public opinion already in part refuses, and why it will in the end 
wholly refuse, to sustain this law, is because it seeks to make the 
thing it deals with a crime in a sense far beyond any estimate which 
men have heretofore formed respecting it. This estimate, right or 
wrong, is the result of a process which has been going on, more or 
less steadily, ever since that first vineyard was planted by Noah. It 
is an estimate growing up side by side and simultaneously with all 
those other ideas and conceptions of things which go to make up the 
man himself. It is incorporated into his very being ; and even if we 
admit, as for argument's sake I have done already, that it is an erro- 
neous estimate — that it indicates an obliquity of vision — it is still 
a natural obliquity, finding its symbol in the knee of oak, which 
received its form while the tree was growing, and cannot easily be 
persuaded to part with that form, and take to itself a straighter one. 
Even before the germ from which the tree sprung had sprouted, that 
form was included within it, — latent, indeed, for a time, but pushed 
by every successive season of growth into an ever-increasing develop- 
ment, until it has attained an obstinacy of strength capable of resist- 
ing the stress of wild storms and angry waves, to which, now become 
a part of yonder ship, it is subjected. Now, I ask again, how are 
we to get rid of this estimate ? How are we to prevail upon men to 
let it go, and take up with another, its very opposite ? That it will 
be found existing in greater force and with a more distinct outline 
in some minds than in others, is, of course, to be expected : for all 
men do not receive their convictions by the same means, nor cling to 
them with the same tenacity. We may go further than this, and 
admit that by a powerful shock, or under a severe pressure, the 
natural, and, for the most part, constantly-asserted influence of such 
an estimate over the conduct and actions of those who hold it, may 
3* 



80 

be temporarily and partially overcome. But the moment this un- 
usual and extraordinary pressure is removed, may we not confidently 
predict a return to that condition of things it has succeeded for a 
while in disturbing ? The natural causes which tend to invite such 
a return will never cease. There will never be a time when this 
inherent bias, if such it be, — this constitutional tendency, — will not 
assert its power ; and to say there will never be a time when, by the 
withdrawal or the relaxed application of that which for a season 
opposed it, it will not be successful, seems to me absurd. 

Having ' thus attempted to show that the public mind is not pre- 
pared to approve of this measure, let us now turn our attention to the 
other part of the question,— -Is it any better prepared to enforce \i ? 
Even were it assured of a mere numerical preponderance of public 
sentiment in its favor, it still remains to inquire whether it be a pre- 
ponderance so energized by an ever-abiding conviction of its neces- 
sity as to energize the statute itself, and bestow upon it that force, 
that vitality, and that unchallenged authority, which are essential to 
its being enforced. It must have not only an approving but also a 
working spirit. Not this only, but any penal statute which lacks 
this kind of preponderance of public sentiment will inevitably 
become a dead letter, unless it be kept alive by an agency outside of, 
and altogether beyond, anything in the statute itself, or in the 
judicial system of which it is a part. The utter nullity of the 
statutes which forbid profanity and Sabbath-breaking fully illustrates 
this point. They are not enforced simply because there is no loudly 
and persistently uttered mandate on the part of the people that they 
shall be enforced. True, indeed, it may be that, should a relentless 
energy and a despotic will become enamored of these neglected 
statutes, — should a quickening spirit, animated by some personal, 
selfish motive, breathe upon these dry bones, — should they be made 
to constitute the platform of a numerous, well-drilled and powerful 
party, — should they, by all expedients, however despicable, be sus- 
tained and strengthened, — should they, by all subtle contrivances 
and boisterous arguments, be promoted in importance above every 
other law, so that, if they be executed, all others may safely be neg- 
lected,— should spies and informers become part and parcel of the 



31 

newly-invented mechanism, — should courts be tampered with and 
destroyed, because they refuse to toe the mark prescribed by the 
great high priest of the order, — should juries be packed, and legis- 
latures be bribed and overawed, for the same purpose, — then these 
dead-letter statutes would be dead no longer, but would become 
clothed with a demon's energy, even if they did not breathe a demon's 
spirit. And again : let the party which has thus warmed them into 
life run its course, let the purpose for which it was created be 
accomplished, and let the crutches, borrowed for a time, by means 
of which these suddenly favorite acts have been temporarily sup- 
ported, be knocked from under them, and down again they go into 
the dust, themselves again to dust converted. Such, apparently, is 
the not distant doom which awaits this now world-renowned, this 
soon to be world-rejected " Maine Law." 

The same point, namely,- the necessity of this energizing spirit in 
the community to be communicated to these penal statutes, may be 
further illustrated by a reference to the criminal codes of the differ- 
ent states, and by noticing the very unequal degrees of rigor with 
which they are administered. Take, for instance, the crime of mur- 
der. The laws respecting it are substantially the same in the 
Southern and Western States with those we have in New England. 
But who knows not that the instances in which a conviction is had, 
making, of course, a proper allowance for the unequal number of 
cases arising in these several portions of the country, are of far more 
infrequent occurrence in the States first named than in the New 
England States? And why? Not because of any less intrinsic 
virtue in the law in those first-named States, but because there life is 
estimated at a low rate ; and if there be a preponderance of public 
sentiment in favor of the law, it is of that sluggish, drowsy descrip- 
tion as to be little better than useless. 

If we look, too, for a moment, to those States where the prevalence 
of duelling has required laws to be enacted for its suppression, we 
find the same fact further illustrated. The ingenuity of man has 
been taxed to the utmost to find a remedy for this evil ; but, as in 
the present instance, the remedy has been looked for in some wordy 
statute, loaded down with heavy penalties, while the evil itself, 



32 

snugly ensconced under the apathetic or only half-awakened indif- 
ference of the community, laughs in its sleeve at these silly and 
futile efforts directed against it. The innumerable so-called u gallon 
laws," which have been from time to time enacted by different State 
Legislatures, may also be referred to in the same connection. The 
infraction of these laws was, in some instances, at least, very care- 
fully guarded against, and by very severe penalties ; but, after living 
long enough to make apparent their utter worthlessness, they went 
down to their graves unhonored and unlamented, whither they are 
soon to be followed by their more pretentious and not less good-for- 
nothing blood relation. May he prove to be the last of his race ! 

I have alluded to the existing laws against profanity and Sabbath- 
breaking, and it may be said in reply that these statutes are directed 
to the prevention specially of offences against God, which do not 
interfere with the interests of society, and are therefore little 
esteemed, and never executed. But, admitting this to be true, — 
and I shall presently have occasion to show that it is so, — it in no 
wise affects the inference I have drawn from this neglect. Why 
they are little esteemed is of no consequence to the argument, which 
requires only that the explanation of their non-execution already 
offered should be the true one. 

And, if any further proof were needed on this point, I might 
refer to the managers of this identical " Maine Law " to furnish it. 
That it has thus far been sustained and enforced by the sheer aid of 
an outside machinery, and that nothing else but these borrowed helps 
has kept it in even a tolerable working condition, is undeniable. 
There is no risk in asserting that the penal statute yet remains to be 
enacted by any legislative body whatsoever of which it can be said 
that it has received a thousandth part of the individual, unofficial aid 
which, from the outset, has been contributed by its advocates to this 
statute. 

Now, why has this been done ? Why all this wasteful expenditure 
of labor ? — for, unless necessary, wasteful it has been, and of a very 
ungracious, unenviable sort, too. Why has the law not been left to 
take its chance with other laws ? Why not allowed, as any law, to 
retain its own self-respect, must do, to stand upon its own legs ? Is 



33 

not the evident answer this : Because those who begot it knew that, 
like similar laws to which I have compared it, it had no legs of its 
own to stand on ? And, once more : why, 0, why has it thrown 
itself into the concupiscent arms of a patronage-seeking, place-hunt- 
ing, honor-coveting party of political aspirants, to be for a while 
caressed and slobbered over, and then — tossed into a ditch, like a 
common drab, by the highway ? Only because it was stricken in its 
birth with the same inherent weakness and imbecility which, since 
the foundation of the world, have characterized all laws of a similar 
nature. 

I now return to consider, for a moment, a distinction already 
alluded to, which is seen in the different degrees of importance 
attached to those laws intended to restrain mere vices and offences 
against God, and those which seek to suppress crimes and offences 
against society; and, since this "Maine Law " belongs undoubtedly 
to the first-named class rather than to the last, it may be well to 
inquire upon what this distinction is founded. And I reply, chiefly, 
if not entirely, upon this : that the former affect individual interests 
injuriously either not at all, or only slightly and indirectly, while 
the latter do affect them directly, and sometimes fatally. The same 
man who admits that a state of society where profanity and Sabbath- 
breaking are unknown is preferable to one where these vices are 
prevalent, and who, perhaps, would be well pleased enough to see 
them suppressed, still finds within himself no motive for exertion in 
that behalf at all to be compared to that which impels him to support 
those laws which protect his life and his property. In the knife or 
pistol of the assassin, which may destroy his life, — in the torch of 
the incendiary, or the pen of the forger, that may take away his* 
property, — he discovers arguments in favor of the laws which punish, 
these offenders, whose voice is never silent, whose force never ceases - 
to be felt. So, too, with statutes that have been found necessary 
to protect the public against fraud : they need no outside helps to 
commend them to every man's approbation, and to secure for them 
every man's support, because every man feels that he, as an indi- 
vidual, needs their protection ; and if himself, his neighbors also. 

Now, it is precisely upon this conviction dwelling in every man's 



34 

heart, — that he as an individual — and if himself, his neighbor — 
would suffer loss or inconvenience should this protection be with- 
drawn, — that all penal statutes are indebted for any measure of 
favor with which they are regarded. Even if the individual seems 
sometimes to rise above this selfish level, and talks, in swelling 
phrase, about the honor and the authority of the State, and affects 
or really feels a concern lest it should be insulted or impaired, this 
elevation is, after all, only seeming. He is thinking still of those 
individual interests — his own or his neighbor's — which are best 
protected when the State is most respected ; and small pains would 
he take to defend such State authority, or resent an insult offered to 
it, only that he knows he or his friends are thus getting an additional 
defence. 

But it may be said, in reply, that this " Maine Law," by suppress- 
ing, or rather aiming to suppress, the vice of intemperance, makes 
an appeal to this identical conviction to which allusion has just been 
made, and therefore comes neither into the category of these dead- 
letter statutes, nor is liable to the same condemnation. And it may 
be admitted that the law has reference to an object which not only 
just at present interests the community much more deeply than does 
the suppression of profanity or Sabbath-breaking, but which, from 
its more intimate connection with great social and individual rights, 
is likely always to retain this precedence to some extent. But, after 
admitting so much, it is still undeniably true that the law is directed 
against a vice whose consequences are either wholly confined to its 
victims, or affect society in the mass and indirectly, rather than 
against what are commonly denominated crimes or felonies^ which 
affect men individually and directly. Men doubtless have a firm 
persuasion that intemperance has a general tendency to render both 
life and property more insecure, and they have some tolerably clear 
perception how it is remotely prejudicial to their interests in a 
variety of ways ; but, to use a homely expression, this is stirring 
them up with rather a long pole. The language addressed by the 
law against murder to every individual personally is this : " See to it 
ihat I am enforced, or your life is not safe." The statutes against 



35 

forgery, theft, arson, proclaim into the ear of every man, " See to 
it that we are faithfully executed, or your property is in danger." 

But this law, unless, indeed, upon the general score of philan- 
thropy, of which I shall speak presently, has no personal address 
for any man. Its language is addressed to society at large, and is 
something like this : " Intemperance is a great evil, the fruitful 
source of crimes and wretchedness, destroying its thousands of vic- 
tims, and bringing immense injury to the world. I seek to suppress 
this evil ; and I call upon all good citizens, who have at heart the 
welfare of the community, and the good of their fellow-men, to aid 
me in this attempt." 

A most commendable endeavor, doubtless, and a most laudable 
exhortation ! But will this last be effective ? — that is the point. Will 
it suffice to triumph over the two enemies whom I have now exhibited 
as in array against this measure — an apathetic indifference in re- 
gard to penal laws which aim at general results, and the natural 
repugnance to the infliction of severe judicial penalties ; a repug- 
nance felt, and not always overcome, even in the case of great crimes, 
by everybody and always, admitted to be such ? Does not the his- 
tory of the past bear indisputable testimony to the fact that, for this 
purpose, nothing can take the place of those instincts of self-preser- 
vation which have been purposely and wisely endowed with muscles 
that never tire, and with a vigilance that never sleeps? When 
called upon to act in the sphere for which they were designed, they 
obey the summons with alacrity ; but when it is attempted to borrow 
their aid for the promotion of any object beyond this sphere, they 
heed it not. 

If, then, the rigid and faithful enforcement of even that class of 
penal statutes which has these wakeful, never-slumbering instincts 
to appeal to in its support is always an up-hill and a more or less 
uncertain task, what may we expect will be the fate of that other 
class, which can make no such appeal ? What can supply the place 
of these sleepless watchmen, these faithful guards, who ever keep a 
vigilant eye upon our property, to protect it from injury, — who 
attend us in all our wanderings, to shield us from danger, — who 



86 

stand ever waiting at the doors of our dwelling to prevent the ingress 
of whatever may injure or molest us ? 

I have thus cursorily examined these two classes of laws, in refer- 
ence to the very unequal degrees of favor with which men are induced 
to regard them, from considering how largely individual interests are 
protected by one class, and not at all, or very remotely, by the 
other ; and I once more repeat, that all penal laws must ever mainly 
depend, for their being sustained and enforced, upon this full and 
lively recognition and appreciation of their absolute necessity by 
each and every individual mind. 

To avoid the consequences of this reasoning, however, it may, and 
probably will, be asserted that, for the support of a measure like the 
present, involving such immense interests, motives of philanthropy 
will amply supply the place of those which flow from the more selfish 
considerations just mentioned. Did I deem it necessary to enter 
into a serious argument to show the futility of this reasoning, the 
materials for the construction of such an argument are at hand in the 
greatest abundance. I incline, however, to doubt, and to treat with 
small respect, a philanthropy that rests thus far, certainly, upon 
very equivocal proofs. I must confess to a faint misgiving as to the 
genuineness of the article — a misgiving founded upon certain passages 
in its history I cannot entirely forget. I have a somewhat fresh 
recollection of what it has already bestowed upon us, — of what helps 
it has availed itself, what doctrines it has taught, what alliances it 
has formed, what instruments it has used ; and, if these be its fruits, 
the less the world has of them the better. Timeo Danaos, et dona 
ferentes. I will not go so far as to say that it is not genuine, but 
it certainly keeps very strange company, and is altogether a very 
strange sort of a fish. " He smells like a fish ; a very ancient and 
fish-like smell ; a kind of not of the newest, poor John. #. * * 
Legged like a man, his fins like arms ! Warm, o 5 my troth ! I do 
now let loose my opinion, hold it no longer ; this is no fish, but an 
islander that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt. Alas ! the 
storm is come again ; my best way is to creep under his gabardine, 
there is no other shelter hereabout. Misery acquaints a man with 
strange bedfellows." 



37 

Now, this may seem rather cavalier treatment of Mr. Philanthropy ; 
but I confess I dislike very much the surname, Politico, which, in 
this instance, belongs to him. I never yet knew one of that branch 
of the family for whose honesty I would give a fig. All of them I 
ever knew were sadly addicted to creeping under gabardines, and to 
having strange bedfellows. They smell of lobbies and log-rolling ; 
and, if they do not buy and sell spirituous liquors, they are noted for 
being frequently concerned in another kind of traffic, not less dis- 
reputable. Indeed, there is no sense in which I at all esteem this 
branch of the family ; and, if the entire race should become extinct, I 
should hardly think the world called upon to put on sackcloth. 
They resemble, in certain particulars, a very small but active little 
animal, who, when you would put your finger upon him, is not 
there ; of whom somebody once said that, if he had them all in a bag, 
he would not " take too much for them," or something to that effect. 
I have small space more to devote to him while he bears the above 
surname ; and if anybody believes he is to be counted upon to sus- 
tain this measure, or any other, more than a single season, all I can 
say is, I wish him joy of his belief. And, in concluding my exami- 
nation of this point, 1 ask again, is it not evident that all laws, and 
especially those which are penal, are mainly indebted, for whatever 
authority they possess, to that personal perception of their necessity 
which results from a knowledge, in the heart of every man, as to 
what his own private and individual interests require ; and if his 
own, his neighbor's also ? 

And, having arrived at a pause in the argument, let us stop for a 
moment to take a glance at this question in the attitude it now occu- 
pies. Does it exhibit anything to encourage the belief, either that 
the public sentiment will permanently approve the measure ; and, if 
so, does it afford the slightest ground for belief that it will enforce 
it ? Will juries, who are to be taken from out of the community, 
unless, indeed, we are to have packed juries, and expurgated jury 
lists, convict under such an amount of testimony as, in a majority 
of cases, the State will be able to procure ? Even with the new and 
increased penalties, considering the greater number of chances for 
escape growing out of this greater severity, will men be deterred from 
4 



38 

selling by this new act, any more than they were by the old one, 
which is confessed to be inadequate ? And if this advance upon a 
former punishment brings with it no advantage, how shall any future 
advance do more ? Is it not a proposition too self-evident to require 
proof, that what this statute may gain to itself in authority, by im- 
posing heavier penalties, it, at the same time, will lose by the diffi- 
culty of executing them, which will be increased in the same ratio? 
If, in the case of crimes acknowledged to be such by everybody 
since the world began, — crimes whose consequences come home to 
every man's own door, and are pointed at his own throat, as murder 
and theft, for instance, — if, in such crimes, the guilty often escape 
the penalty due to their offence altogether, for the identical reason 
that a weak human nature shrinks from the dread task imposed upon 
it, how can we hope for a more unyielding sternness where the 
offence is of the kind we are now considering, born of yesterday, 
until when it was not a crime at all ; and, still more, an offence 
whose consequences are distributed at random through the commu- 
nity at large, rather than visited upon the heads of individual mem- 
bers of that community ? 

"Ah," but say the Maine Law logicians, "we have settled these 
questions already. We have done, and, any time these four years 
past, have been doing, just what you here disaffirm ; and what we 
have done before, we can and will do again. " 

In reply, I say that, for argument's sake, I will admit you have 
done these things in the past, to the full extent you claim to have 
done them ; but I take issue with you upon that other and last 
clause, which brings me now to examine the second part of the 
main proposition which I submitted some pages back. It is this, — 
that this measure requires an ever-active instrumentality, extraneous 
to the act itself, upon which it rests, and supplemental to any intrin- 
sic authority it possesses by virtue of its being a State enactment, in 
order that it be permanently enforced ; which instrumentality it can 
in nowise be assured of always receiving. 

And the necessity of any argument to prove the first clause of this 
proposition is nearly, or quite, superseded by the views already pre- 
sented under a former head, where I attempted to show the univer- 



39 

sal imbecility of a certain class of statutes, and to explain the reason 
of that imbecility. If they be, as was then contended, inadequate 
of themselves to accomplish the purpose for "which they were created, 
it is evident they must receive some help from abroad to atone for 
this weakness, or else continue to prove inoperative ; and if this 
statute we are considering was properly classified with them, then I 
may assume it as already established that it does need this extra- 
neous aid I have insisted upon. 

And the dilemma to which I suppose the " Maine Law " doctora 
are thus brought has two horns to it, and they may take which they 
like best ; but, notwithstanding their scruples, for which I ordinarily 
entertain a great respect, a horn, for once, at least, I must insist 
upon their taking. They may say either that these extraordinary 
helps . and contrivances, upon which I have represented the law as 
resting in the past, will continue to be at hand for its support in all 
coming time, or that the measure will so gain upon the popular favor 
as not to need them. 

And of two things, both so unlikely that nothing can be more 
unlikely than either of them, it is hard to tell which is most so. Let 
us first examine that last named. For this purpose we might con- 
tent ourselves with asking this single question : Is it likely that a 
large portion of the community, comprising men of the highest 
respectability in society, in the church, and in the state, men who 
contribute their full share toward determining the tone of public 
sentiment, men who, with full light to guide them, have bestowed 
the most careful and deliberate attention upon this whole subject, 
is it likely that such men, entertaining from the first most decided 
objections to this law in its milder form, and in its partially unestab- 
lished inadequacy, should ever become reconciled to it in its more 
hideous development ? Do men ever come to fall in love with a 
thing growing constantly worse, which when it was at its best they 
cordially despised ? 

But this point is both worthy and capable of a more extended 
examination. And, in attempting this examination, I remark, first, 
that if the law is to gain upon public favor, it must be either by 
a change in the law itself, in the field where it is intended to 



40 

operate, or in those whose increased approbation it thus hopes to 
secure. 

And were the probabilities of any substantial change in the law 
itself greater than they are, that is a point I am spared from inquir- 
ing into, since the question has to do with the present law only, and 
not with another to be substituted for it. Should it be said that the 
field where it is intended to operate will change, — that there will be 
less opposition to the measure, and fewer obstacles of every sort in 
the way of its being received into the hearts of men, growing out of 
a general progress in the temperance reformation, — I have only to say 
that this in reality amounts to a begging of the question at issue ; 
for, since this law, as we have seen already, claims to be the sole 
occupant and tiller of this field, if we at any time admit that the 
change contended for has taken place, we admit at the same time that 
the law has produced this change, and so surrender the whole subject- 
matter of debate. Any objection to the law, which the law itself, in 
the course of its natural operation, is capable of removing, to that 
extent evidently ceases to be an objection ; and I am therefore ex- 
cused from dwelling longer on this point, since a contrary supposition 
to the above would overthrow what the previous reasoning is supposed 
to have already established. 

The change, then, if any, upon which this law must depend for a 
future degree of approbation beyond what is now accorded to it, must 
be a change in man himself. And what must be the nature of this 
change ? Must it concern matters of substance, or matters of form ? 
Must it have reference to conditions inherent in man's nature, or to 
those which have been acquired? to conditions that are of his 
essence, or which are only accidental ? Must it be a change confined 
to the man himself, or will it affect the relations he sustains towards 
others around him ? 

A remark made upon a previous page, that " a measure whose 
success should depend upon making men believe that color white 
which they have always supposed was black would stand upon all 
fours with the present," furnishes an answer to these questions. The 
change that is requisite must be a radical change, going down into 
the secret places of the heart — into the deepest recesses of the 



41 

human soul. It must be a change by which indeed " old things 
shall pass away, and all things become new;" a change which 
shall do for every man to whom it happens what we read that a sud- 
den accident or a severe sickness has sometimes done for its subject 
— making him to forget and be absolutely rid of all his former ideas 
and stock of knowledge, and leaving him to acquire new ideas and a 
new stock of knowledge ; a change that shall make him vigilant, 
where before he was careless ; an enthusiast, where before he was 
listless and apathetic ; steady and determined, where before he was 
wavering and irresolute; stern, where before he was clement; a 
change, in short, which shall convert him from a free, self-deter- 
mined, responsible agent, called man, into a wire-worked puppet or 
automaton, moved and directed by the arbitrary power of a mere 
human enactment. I say arbitrary power; and I do not mean 
in that inferior sense that it forbids the dealing in a certain article, 
or that it interferes in mere matters of trade and commerce ; but in 
that far higher and more important sense, that it undertakes to med- 
dle with matters of conscience — to prescribe as to what men shall 
receive or reject ; to compel them to pronounce that a felony, which 
all its antecedents, and all their own previous convictions, declare is 
not so ; and still further ordains that they shall become the instru- 
ments of punishment to be inflicted upon their fellow-men, for the do- 
ing of this law-created felony, which, judged by their own hearts, is 
no felony. If this be not an arbitrary exercise of authority, we may 
well ask what is such an exercise. If he be not a despot who tells 
me to send a man to jail for six months because he was seen to carry 
a barrel or a jug of whiskey from one part to another of this State 
of Maine, then no despot lives on earth. If a statute be founded 
upon a principle which makes it a crime, punishable with imprison- 
ment, to furnish or carry a nail or a plank to be used in the con- 
struction of a building where spirituous liquors are to be sold, it is 
an arbitrary statute ; and all the artful dodges, pitiful shifts, and 
adroit evasions, of which the " Maine Law " doctors are the masters, 
cannot make it otherwise. 

That a change nothing short of that above indicated is necessary, 
before this law can hope to be regarded with greater favor than it 
4* 



42 

has already obtained, is evident from the argument already presented 
on this whole question ; and it is equally evident that no such radical 
change can possibly take place. One horn of the dilemma to which 
I supposed the advocates of the, law to be reduced being thus dis- 
posed of, it remains that I devote a few words to the other, which is 
this : that those extraordinary helps and contrivances upon -which 
the measure has hitherto rested will continue in all coming time. 

And the mere statement of this proposition reveals its absurdity, 
with a force nearly beyond the power of illustration to increase. 
Whether the motives that induced these outside contributions were 
pure or otherwise, — whether they were furnished by a hope of re- 
ward in the shape of office, or patronage, or short-lived distinctions, 
or had their origin in a higher source,— they must be, in either case, 
of but transient duration. Inducements cannot always be at hand 
to attract the selfish ; and those who were ready enough to put their 
shoulder to the wheel to help it over a rough place in the road, will 
withdraw their aid in disgust when they discover that the same aid 
is requisite even upon the smooth and level turnpike. It would be, 
however, little short of an insult to the reader's understanding, to 
offer further proof of a thing so plain in itself; and I here leave it, 
only remarking that I might have safely omitted its introduction 
altogether, except that it serves to explain the partial and temporary 
success which has already attended this measure. 

One point more remains to be examined, and with that terminates 
this part of the discussion. It has been remarked, already, that so 
far as any statute depends upon principles still in dispute and unset- 
tled, principles incapable of being definitely settled, or principles 
obnoxious to a portion of the community, so far is it necessary that the 
preponderance of public sentiment in favor of the measure should 
be of a decided character, both in numbers, and as to its inner force 
and vitality. Now, let us examine this " Maine Law " in reference 
to each of these three particulars. 

I. How far does it plant itself upon principles already settled ? 
The grand principle it involves, and upon which it rests, is that of 
prohibition. And, using this term in its commonly-received accepta- 
tion, how far has the doctrine it teaches been interpreted to the pub- 



43 

lie mind ? How much effort has been directed to the developing and 
defining of its exact meaning ? How many treatises have been writ- 
ten on the subject? To what extent has it been discussed, with a 
view to ascertain in what cases, for what purposes, and to what degree, 
it may or may not be applied ? If there be any deficiency of light 
thrown upon the question from these sources, how far does any suc- 
cess that has attended its application in the past history of the world 
go to supply this deficiency ? Does it, by any light shed upon it 
from any quarter, make the most distant approach, in respect of a 
full understanding of its meaning, a clear perception of its theoreti- 
cal teachings, and of the proper cases for its practical application, to 
those great cardinal and long-established truths which men have 
universally received, and to which they most confidently refer in 
justification of their conduct ? These questions evidently admit of 
only one answer ; and we may unhesitatingly affirm that compara- 
tively nothing has thus far been gained, either by experience or by 
investigation directed to that object, towards a final settlement of the 
principles upon which the doctrine rests. 

II. How far do these principles admit of being definitely settled ? 
And the fact that little or nothing has been thus far gained towards 
such a settlement, goes far towards furnishing an answer to this in- 
terrogatory. The fact itself indicates that the question i3 of that 
complex, intricate character, that it includes such an immense field 
to be at once surveyed, and such a multitude of conflicting circum- 
stances to be compared and reconciled with each other, as to be 
nearly, if not quite, beyond the limited powers of the human mind to 
grasp. It is precisely one of those questions upon which we may 
expect men always to differ. The theory itself admits of being 
enunciated only in the most general terms ; and the moment we seek 
to extract from it rules for any practical guidance, we find ourselves 
so encumbered by exceptions, and so embarrassed by conditions, that 
the attempt proves a failure ; so that we are perfectly safe in saying 
that these principles, from their very nature, are incapable of being 
satisfactorily and accurately determined, or of furnishing data upon 
which to found anything like a complete system. 

III. How far are the measures this " Maine Law " advocates, and 



44 

the doctrines and principles it avows, obnoxious or otherwise to a 
portion of the community ? And it is unnecessary to tarry a moment 
to answer this question. It has been already answered, long before 
to-day ; but there is one view of it, which, although it has been 
already glanced at, is worthy, in this connection, of further attention. 
To what portion of the community is it that these measures and 
principles are obnoxious ? Is it, indeed, as has been so pertinaciously 
and so vociferously asserted, to a portion so degraded generally, or 
so professionally interested in this matter, that they are disqualified 
from testifying in regard to it, that they are not worthy of being lis- 
tened to ? Those who dare to assert such a thing are bold men 
indeed ; bold to assert what they themselves, and everybody else, 
know to -be utterly false — what they so know to be so false, that it 
would seem nothing short of a most dire extremity would have suf- 
ficed to induce the assertion ; and as a proof of that dire extremity we 
receive it. That there are men to be found in great numbers, scattered 
up and down through the length and breadth of this State of Maine, 
to whom this whole thing is utterly obnoxious ; who, by their general 
purity of life, and uniformly irreproachable character, by their un- 
intermitted and zealous efforts in behalf of this identical temperance 
reformation, by their previous habits of thought and severe mental 
discipline, their comprehensive views, their varied and profound 
attainments in general knowledge, and in moral and political science, 
are, to say the least, as well qualified to judge correctly, and as fully 
entitled to be listened to with respect, as any who belong to the 
opposite faction, is a fact as indisputable as is that other fact, that all 
this has been over and over again denied — it is a fact as incapable 
of being rendered obscure, as the shameless audacity and mendacity 
of those who deny it is, incapable of going undetected. How a delib- 
erate conspiracy, aimed at a single individual in this community, 
whose well-known character, still more than his conspicuous and in- 
fluential position, caused him to be regarded as a most formidable 
opponent, with a view to destroy that character, and so nullify any 
conclusions that might be drawn adverse to this law, from his mere 
failure to heartily, and after the prescribed fashion, espouse it — how 
such a conspiracy, for such a purpose, was most signally overthrown, 



45 

is already known to a vast multitude, who, even if they be friends 
of this " Maine Law," rejoice unspeakably at the discomfiture of a 
scheme like this, which was designed to advance that law. 

Now, unless there be some way to evade the force of the preced- 
ing remarks, it follows that, in order to the final triumph of the law 
under discussion, there must be not only a preponderance of public 
sentiment in its favor, but it is further essential that it should be a 
very decided preponderance — not merely in numbers, but as to its 
entire construction and inward essence. Not only must it be always 
free of any negative weaknesses, any vacillating temper, any pliancy 
of spirit, any selfish or temporizing policy ; but it must be endowed 
with an energy that shall never subside into apathy ; with an inde- 
structible vitality, exempt forever from decay or diminution ; with 
an enduring, abiding permanency, capable of surviving every acci- 
dent of time, every fierce onset that may ever be directed against it. 
Has the law a guarantee of these conditions of its success ? It has 
declared itself for force, and it must abide the issue. It has entered 
an arena from which it may go no more out forever. If it lives, it 
must live with its armor ever harnessed on for action j if it dies, it 
must die on the field, from which there remains to it now no escape. 

I have thus attempted — with what success the reader will deter- 
mine for himself — to exhibit some of the chief obstacles in the way 
of the permanent practical working of this "Maine Law." In 
concluding this part of the subject, it is proper to ask whether there 
be anything belonging to the law by virtue of which it may claim 
to constitute in any wise an exception to the general rule, and so to 
that extent evade, or subtract from, the force of the preceding 
argument against it. 

And I am constrained to reply there is nothing, certainly nothing 
that can have more than the most transient existence. I have made 
no allusion to those fierce appetites and passions which the law seeks 
to restrain, and in which it must ever find a most formidable oppo- 
nent ; but the opposition I have referred to has its foundation in the 
very nature of man himself; and, as we have seen, until that is 
changed, the opposition to this law can no more change. When such 
a change is wrought in his nature that he can throw off his allegi- 



46 

ance to all his former habits of thought as easily and effectually as 
he can his bodily garments, this opposition may cease, but not till 
then. It will — from the very necessity of the case it must — sur- 
vive the fervor now temporarily aroused against it. Ever holding 
its own — ever presenting the same unbroken front, the same com- 
pact phalanx — it will gradually, even if not rapidly, encroach upon 
a territory whose integrity is left to depend upon a vigilance that 
must tire; a vigilance which is not necessitated by anything in 
man's nature, but one that has been assumed under the pressure 
of influences purely external, which, like all other externals, will 
vary and fluctuate with every successive hour. The column is 
thrown from its perpendicular position. The forces that rest against 
it, tending to crowd it still more from its equilibrium, never for a 
moment relax their pressure, while the fainting, apathetic hearts, 
and the tired, overstrained muscles, which resist its greater declina- 
tion, must yield to that law of nature which demands for them repose 
and restoration. 



PART II. 



It has been observed already, that any weaknesses or imperfections 
revealed as belonging to this law considered in its working capacities, 
will furnish to the minds of most men more effective arguments 
against it than any reasoning of a mere abstract nature will be 
likely to disclose. To overlook this latter field, however, altogether, 
where, if not in such abundance, still some fruits may be gathered, 
would give to the presentation of the argument an unfinished appear- 
ance, even if it should not do more, and make it to seem absolutely 
defective. Reluctantly as I approach the task, it is one, therefore, 
I do not feel myself at liberty to decline, — a task, however, which I 
would venture to express the hope has been partially relieved of its 
difficulty by the preceding argument, along whose path have almost 
unavoidably shot some not altogether indistinct gleamings of the 



47 

truths which I now propose more particularly to examine and 
illustrate. 

Announced, then, in the fewest possible words, and in the most 
general terms, the great fundamental error of this " Maine Law " 
doctrine is this — that it overlooks and entirely ignores the princi- 
ple, or rule, that the means must be proportioned to the end. Ever 
since the fiat went forth, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread," the rule has been, you may not have something for nothing; 
and if not something for nothing, no more may you have much for 
little. The rule is, "Do you want a?iythmg^ you must pay — 
not nothing for it, not a half-price, not a clipped guinea: but 
an equivalent — a full, perfect equivalent, to be honestly paid 
down." That is the price at which you may make any something 
yours which is not yours already, and that is the only price. The 
rule is so unchangeable that it holds even in the apparent exception. 
This apparent exception is seen to-day, in the success of the gambler. 
That it was only apparent is shown to-morrow by his then losing what 
yesterday he appeared to have gained. The apparent exception is 
seen this month in the fruits of a fortunate speculation. That it 
was only apparent, is proved the next month, by these fruits being 
scattered to the winds. 

There is an old saying, " That the Lord never starts a good enter- 
prise, but the devil turns charioteer and runs away with it ; " and he 
does this most frequently by inducing men to claim too much from 
too little, to seek extravagant results from humble agents, and to 
spoil what was a very good thing in its way, by seeking to make it 
available for a much greater thing, when it is worse than useless. 
The temperance reformation was one of these "good things in it3 
way," altogether too good to meet the views of his Satanic majesty; 
and he accordingly looks around for this his favorite charioteer, and, 
by inducing men to claim too much from the enterprise, prevents 
their getting from it anything. If he is already chuckling over an 
unwonted success which seems likely to attend his efforts in the pres- 
ent instance, it is probably because this last experiment has had the 
benefit of all his former experience in this matter of fast driving. 

Turn our eyes whithersoever we will, this disposition to get too 



48 

much from too little finds everywhere its illustration. We see it 
not only in the expedition of the rampant filibuster, who, in exchange 
for a score of lives, would purchase immense territorial possessions, 

— not only in the gambling saloons and the stock markets of our 
large cities, not only in the gold mines of California and Australia, 

— but we find it, too. even in the plodding farmer, the easy-going 
husbandman, who, having at hand fertilizing materials enough for 
one acre, spreads them upon two, if not three, and, instead of the 
good honest ear, with rounded measure, he gets a shrunk and wizzled 
nubbin ; he ploughs two or three inches deep, instead of ten or 
twelve, and instead of one bushel of golden grain, plump and well- 
filled, he gets two of chaff. 

But thickly strewn as are upon every side the manifold evidences 
of this spirit, nowhere has it been oftener exemplified, and nowhere 
has it been attended with more deplorable results, than in the fre- 
quent attempts to find a specific for the great social and moral evils 
which in the past ever have afflicted, and which, with scarcely an 
appreciable diminution, still continue to afflict, the great family of 
man. The actors in a rapidly-moving drama hardly succeed each 
other with greater swiftness upon the stage, than do these magnifi- 
cent schemes follow each other. But, notwithstanding these multi- 
tudinous panaceas, — all, too, infallible, — we, of this generation, sicken 
and die quite after the same fashion as did our fathers before us. 

The instrument which these would-be reformers, these self-styled 
and self-glorifying philanthropists, have most often sought to make 
available for their purpose, is that of legislation, or, in some shape 
or other, political enginery. Under the " droppings" of some august 
council-chamber, or legislative hall, the sanitary herb is looked for 
whose potent spell is to relieve mankind forever of the curse under 
which they have hitherto rested. With the most overwhelming proofs 
all about us that a heaven-descended law, — a law devised in the far 
remote counsels of eternity ; a law in perfecting which was exhausted 
the fulness of a divine wisdom, and an infinite knowledge ; a law 
suited to the thing created by Him who was the creator; a law 
exemplified, illustrated and enforced, in a manner no other law has 
ever been, by the life and the death of the great Lawgiver himself; 



49 

a law, too, so simple that he who runs may read, — with the most" 
overwhelming proofs all about us that such a law, in the course of 
eighteen hundred years, instead of curing, has succeeded in only 
partially alleviating these evils, we still go about in the hope to find 
the yet unrevealed secret lurking somewhere in the dark, labyrin- 
thine passages of some petty statute of human invention ! Putting 
their trust in these earth-born enactments, panoplied in parchment, 
and bulwarked around with huge tomes of man's wisdom, we have 
seen the mightiest nations go down successively into the dust ; and, in 
proof that their fate shall never become ours, we confidently point to 
another parchment, to other tomes, and to other similar enactments. 
Heaven grant that for this glorious heritage we have received the 
parallel shall go no further ! Heaven grant that it be not our destiny 
to exhibit, more illustriously than has yet been done, the folly of 
claiming too much from too little ! 

But, to proceed. From the general truth with which I started, 
and which I have in a few words attempted to illustrate, namely, 
that the means must ever be proportioned to the end, what is the 
corollary to be drawn as affecting the subject-matter of discussion ? 
It is this : that great moral and social evik do not admit of a cure 
by political prescriptions, judicial decisions, or legislative enact- 
ments. 

And I must again remind the reader that it is important to bear 
in mind the sense in which the word cure is here used ; for nothing 
less than this whole controversy turns upon this precise point. That 
these evils do admit of being modified to a certain extent, of 
being restricted within narrower limits, of being 'partially controlled, 
and that, too, by the aid and cooperative authority of a human 
statute, is not for a moment disputed. But that is not the sense in 
which the word cure is above used ; it is not the sense in which the 
begetters and the managers of this " Maine Law " use the word : it 
is not the sense in which their entire reasoning, their fundamental 
doctrine, compel them to use it. And it is only when they are 
driven to defend the measure that they sometimes resort to that 
inferior and diluted signification of the word above mentioned. When 
they are recommending their favorite to the adoption of others, they 
5 



50 

claim for it the power to provide an effectual and a thorough cure 
for the evil it seeks to cure. Indeed, there is one view in which a 
defence of the measure requires that the word should bear its full 
significance ; for upon what other grounds can even an apparent 
justification be found for the severity of the penalties the law imposes, 
and its generally stringent provisions ? Will men be brought to 
pronounce that a felony to-day, which yesterday was only matter of 
entreaty and remonstrance, and day before yesterday not even that. 
merely to palliate this evil ? Will men be prevailed upon to give 
their assent to a kind of reasoning that may compel them to send a 
man to jail, because he carried a plank or a nail towards the con- 
struction of a building for the sale of spirituous liquors, upon any 
grounds a whit short of these — that this evil thing shall be thus 
wholly removed — extirpated root and branch? Evident it is, 
beyond all possibility of denial, that if men ever assent to such an 
unfamiliar doctrine, — which, in the proper place, I showed they will 
not, — it will be under no inducement less than that just named. 
That this is the precise inducement which the patrons of the law 
offer, is also evident from this, — that their identical objection to the 
old temperance movements and organizations, which they so viru- 
lently seek to supplant, is just this — that those movements did not 
and could not cure this evil. That principle of moral suasion which 
they so love to berate had certainly done much towards crippling 
the monster ; and, had it not, this boastful law might have fared still 
worse than it has in the encounter ; but it was unequal to killing 
him outright, and, therefore, we must hatch something else that will 
be equal to this task — and hence this mare's egg ! 

Having thus shown the inevitable meaning which attaches to the 
word, I proceed to examine whether the above proposition or corol- 
lary be not true ; or, in other words, to inquire whether the attempt 
to cure great moral and social evils by a legislative enactment be 
not in disregard of the rule which demands that the means should be 
proportioned to the end, and so whether this " Maine Law" be not 
an instance where too much is sought from too little. 

And I apprehend that the principles upon which the truth of this 
proposition rests are too plain, and too simple, to require, or even 



51 

to admit of, any very extended examination. I apprehend that God 
himself has settled this question. His great — I might say his 
only — requirement is, " mend and purify the heart." So essential 
is obedience here, so absolutely imperative is this command, and 
so held in esteem by the Almighty Governor of the world is this his 
first ordinance, that he will bring to it a revenue of glory, by 
withholding success from any scheme or instrumentality which does 
not recognize and obey it. So far as it fails to be distinctly recog- 
nized, its authority is disaffirmed; and any attempt to dispense with 
its aid — I mean, of course, in matters where its aid may be properly 
invoked ■ — is a virtual insult offered to the ordinance itself. Whether 
this mending and purifying of the heart be, or be not, to our appre- 
hension, the paying of a great price, from which we shall be entitled 
to claim a great reward, matters not to this argument. He who 
governs the universe, and who has appointed its laws, so esteems 
it; and if these scheming reformers dislike the appeal to this "higher 
law," — and even if I am doing them an injustice, I cannot avoid 
attributing to them the supposition that He has nothing to do with 
this matter, — I say if they dislike the appeal to this higher law, a 
reference to the past history of the world furnishes substantially the 
same argument, which, in the form first presented, I have supposed 
them to reject. Failure always has attended such schemes ; so that, 
let the law which causes that failure derive its authority whence 
it may, we are justified in believing it to be an unchangeable law. 
This rule, or, if you choose, this established law of nature, does not, 
indeed, preclude a resort to statutory enactments as effective allies 
who shall contribute their aid towards the removal of this class of 
evils I am now speaking of. But, as has been said more than once 
already, the " Maine Law" doctors do not regard their beloved 
bantling in any such light They not only claim that it is in itself 
all-sufficient for the purpose it contemplates, but any assistance to 
be got for it, by an appeal to the heart or the conscience, they 
utterly repudiate; and not only that, but they denounce, as worse than 
the "common seller," all who do not repudiate such appeals. That 
requirement of the Great Lawgiver above alluded to is not only 
overlooked by them, but they distinctly, and in direct terms, abjure 
it. u Is not this great Babylon, which /have built?" is their Ian- 



52 

guage; and in the fate of that ancient city they may read the doom 
which awaits their own proud structure. 

Again, I have said above that to secure anything not already 
ours we must pay an equivalent. Now, when we desire to find a 
remedy against great social and moral evils, what is the equivalent ? 
This precisely — a retracing of the steps which led us into these 
evils ; and other equivalent than this, except by a miracle, there is 
none. The rule is the same for society, or for the State, as for the 
individual. -Would a man escape from the effects of gluttony, — the 
equivalent he must pay is fasting. Is he suffering from the effects 
of over-indulgence in any direction, — it is in just the opposite direc- 
tion he must retrace his steps, in order to reestablish himself in a 
former state of wholeness. If any particular faculty of body or 
mind has been injured by over-exertion, rest to that faculty is evi- 
dently the specific cure; and if, on the contrary, it has become 
languid for want of needful exercise, that exercise must now furnish 
the remedy. Whatever be the error to be corrected, no short cut — 
nothing but an absolute retracing of the path — will lead back to the 
point of departure. So with States, or communities. Have they, 
by lack of mental cultivation, lapsed into mental imbecility, — they 
must go back, if at all, by the path they came. Have they become 
enervated by slothful ease, or debased by a lax morality, — the equiva- 
lent demanded of them, in order to elevate themselves from either of 
these conditions, is, that they reverse the process which sunk them 
thus low ; and in proportion as the descent has been long continued, 
so toilsome and laborious must be the ascent. This is a sufficient 
statement of the rule, and I believe it is one of universal applica- 
tion. Let us, then, attempt to apply it to the case in hand. 

Intemperance, in some form or other, is a great evil, the world 
over. The authors of the " Maine Law" imagine they have dis- 
covered in that measure a "short cut" — long looked for, indeed, 
and so has been the north-west passage — by which to escape from it. 
For some thousands of years the world had been progressing further 
and further along this evil way, on either side of which are to be 
seen thickly strewn the bones of the unhappy travellers. Away 
back, we know not how far in the remote past, lies the point of 
departure from that smiling territory — that fair domain, where 



53 

Temperance holds her mild and gentle* sway, and where, under her 
benignant influences, peace and happiness abound. Disease is hardly 
known there, and when death comes his summons is for the waiting 
pilgrim of three-score years and ten. Neither bolt nor bar guards 
the door of the good man's dwelling against the prowling thief, or 
the midnight assassin. There is plenty there for all, and poverty 
threatens no man. 

Now, what is a fair and reasonable equivalent for the world to 
pay, in order to be restored to this goodly country ? A petty statu- 
tory enactment ? A paltry law, which sends, now and then, a man 
or two to prison ? Is he to be the scape-goat by whose efficacious 
atonement the rest of the world, who have more or less* contributed 
their quota to this evil thing, are to escape ? Truly, a wonderful 
equivalent would this be — a "short cut," with a vengeance, by 
which to get back to a point from which centuries of travel have 
removed us ! With no such impunity as this does man transgress 
against great and universal laws. Upon no such insignificant terms 
as these do communities or States reestablish themselves upon that 
lofty eminence from which they have been plunged, by a long-con- 
tinued violation of nature's laws. The extent of the transgression 
is the measure of the equivalent that must be paid, in order to the 
restoration. Nature's language to every man, and to every commu- 
nity, is, : ' Have you violated any of my laws ? — expect not to pro- 
pitiate me by any sacrifice, or any offering, a whit inferior to the 
offence." Upon what other terms than these is her authority to 
be maintained ? And see, for a moment, with what jealous watch- 
fulness, with what certainty and regularity of movement, with what 
unswerving, unhesitating step, she ever proceeds in the execution of 
the sentence. Who ever yet escaped the appointed penalty ? What 
man, woman or child, what State, what community, what princi- 
pality, ever yet avoided making a full restitution for any offence 
committed against her; and which of them ever substituted any 
other peace-offering than that she has herself designated ? What 
this is, we have seen already. "In whatever path you have sinned 
against me, in that same path retrace your steps." Whatever has 
contributed towards this great evil, intemperance, whether it be a 
5* 



54 

love of pleasure, the desire of gain, the gratification of inordinate 
appetites, or what not, these must contribute towards making up 
that full equivalent, short of which nothing can be accepted. We 
have sinned much. Let us be assured we must atone much. We 
are seeking a great thing ; let us understand we must pay a great 
price. Nature has had great and long experience of our disobe- 
dience; and while she sees all those passions and appetites from which 
this disobedience sprung still unsubdued, she will require some 
other guarantee of our good behavior in the future than a mere 
wordy statute, however carefully prepared, however strictly guarded 
by severe penalties. 

Viewed, then, by the light which history sheds upon this subject, 
examined by all the analogies of which it is capable, subjected to all 
the tests which an enlightened judgment and sound reason can fur- 
nish, and, finally, pondered by the rules a divine inspiration has 
given us, I ask is the measure we have been considering founded 
upon sound principles ? Leaving out of view, for a moment, the incal- 
culable benefit it promises to bestow upon us, and examining it 
upon its intrinsic merits, I ask whether there be even the most 
remote prospect for its final triumph and success. 

And, while I am not unmindful of the heart-cheering, inspiring 
hopes it has awakened, of the immense amount of effort enlisted for 
its support, and of the great weight of character by which it has 
been sustained, I am constrained to give a negative answer to the 
above questions. Whether I look at the difficulties it must en- 
counter in the way of its working capacities, or whether I examine 
the great general principles upon which the measure rests, I am 
alike unable to resist the conviction that it will, in the end, prove a 
broken reed, to pierce those who lean upon it. That it should leave 
this question of temperance where it found it is impossible! That, 
instead of bringing any advantage to the cause, it will greatly and 
seriously retard its onward progress, is my firm, unwavering belief. 
The cause has been snatched ruthlessly from the hands of those gen- 
tle charities, those kindly sympathies, whose office in a peculiar 
sense it was, by tender admonition, by affectionate counsel, by 
reasonable reproof, by well-chosen argument, by earnest remon- 
strance, by pungent exhortation, to provide a remedy for this evil. 



55 

And to whom — to what — has it been committed ? Tossed into the 
arena of political strife and wrangling, its once fair features torn 
and bloody under the teeth of the venal pack, maimed, polluted, 
begrimed, despoiled of its comely proportions, its garments defiled, 
while itself lies low in the dust, it presents not a vestige of its former 
comeliness, not a poor remnant of its former strength. 

But it will be said, in reply, "Those gentle charities, those 
kindly sympathies, you talk about so lovingly, proved unequal to the 
task they undertook." And what of that? Is that an objection to 
them ? Do we pull down our churches, because all men do not be- 
come Christian worshippers ? Do we cease to inculcate benevolence, 
because there are misers left in the world ? Because an instrument- 
ality is not omnipotent, does that prove it good for nothing ? There 
are a few, at least, who doubt whether your own boasted scheme 
possess this attribute. Pray tell us when moral suasion proved 
equal to the extirpation of any vice. It has long sought to suppress 
evil speaking, backbiting, malicious slander. Has it quite suc- 
ceeded, or does the tongue continue to be that -'unruly member" 
it was long ago represented to be? Why not give us a "penal 
statute" against that evil, Messrs, "Maine Law" doctors; and, for 
that matter, against all evils of a similar nature ? Why not make a 
clean sweep of it, and banish from the face of the earth that which 
so mars its beauty, and impairs its fruitfulness in works of love and 
gentle charity ? Instead of wasting your time in the vain attempt 
to explain the origin of moral evil, why not terminate the conflict 
of ages by giving us the cure for this evil, and thus remove that 
stumbling-block out of the way ? Truly, men have most needlessly 
vexed their brains about a very small matter, when they have dis- 
cussed this question. Suppose the Almighty Governor of the uni- 
verse has allowed the introduction, and until now the continued 
existence, of moral evil in the world. Small ground that, ye cavil- 
ling objectors, for which to arraign his justice, or his benevolence. 
Behold ye, the cure is in your own hands. It is a cure, too, most 
simple and efficacious. I pray you, do not reject it on account of its 
simplicity, but bethink you that, when once discovered, the greatest 
truths become plain and simple as this. The day of jubilee has 
come, at last. The hour of universal emancipation is at hand. 0, 



56 

immortal "honor to the discoverer ! 0, glorious tidings to an en- 
slaved and besotted world. A penal statute has become its deliv- 
erer ; a legislative enactment has triumphed at last over its great 
enemy ! 

Now, in the objection which I have above supposed the "Maine 
Law" advocates to make to the old-fashioned manner of conducting 
the temperance reformation, we only see again the fundamental 
error under which they, and other similar schemers, rest. It is 
this : that a great moral evil, whose cancerous roots have for thou- 
sands of years penetrated the body politic through and through, and 
for hundreds of centuries have clasped it round and round, is sus- 
ceptible of a radical and nearly instantaneous cure. An ancient 
philosopher once said, " Give me a lever long enough, and I will 
move the world." These modern philosophers promise to do the 
same thing without a lever. "Away," say they, "with your lazy- 
moving, clumsy contrivance, you call moral suasion. No slow 
coach like that for us. Stand aside, and we will show you a more 
rapid working." 

And methink3, if angels ever look down with mingled pity and 
derision upon man, it is when they behold him making himself ready 
for such/ an encounter ; first surveying for a single moment the 
stronghold that is to be taken, — its foundations deep as hell, its 
defiant walls built of adamant and high as heaven, — and then bring- 
ing up to the attack — what? A hot summons to surrender at 
discretion; a thundering proclamation of pains and penalties; a 
wordy bulletin, concocted in some political junto ! Meanwhile the 
patient siege under which the enemy was fast being reduced has 
been driven from the field, because, forsooth, those adamantine walb 
have not been at once razed to the ground ; but which, as did of 
old the walls of Jericho, it seems are to topple over incontinently by 
the breath of these newly-arrived trumpeters ; or, if they do not, it 
shall not be for any want of loud blowing of their patent ram's 
horns. Festina lente is a good motto for any standard ; and I 
cannot better conclude these most hastily-written pages than by 
commending its wise counsel to the consideration of these wide- 
striding, proud-stalking reformers, who would undo in a day what 
more than four thousand years have witnessed the doing of. 



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